Lunar Impact: Phases
by Ectodude
Summary: Part 2. 17 years ago, the Symphony of Destruction was nearly complete, but was thwarted. Now, a secret order wishes to use the recorder meant to play the Symphony and the current team of Ghostbusters must locate it. There's a catch: the recorder comes from an evil realm called the Negaverse. Its up to the Sailor Scouts to help... if the teams don't kill each other first.
1. The Story So Far

Lunar Impact: Phases

Sailor Moon/Extreme Ghostbusters Crossover

By Dan "Ectodude" Shannon

Chapter 1: The Story So Far

In October of 1995, the world renowned Ghostbusters of New York - Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond "Ray" Stantz, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore - had been contracted by the Japanese government to investigate a series of disappearances in a local Tokyo park. Before the trip, Ghostbusters new hire Dan Shannon has an unusual and vivid nightmare of a young girl being killed by a man in mysterious gray attire. The girl herself was dressed in a Sailor-like costume trimmed in green and pink. The nightmare ended in Dan's death.

After subsequently being dumped by his girlfriend and evicted from his apartment, forcing him to move into his company headquarters, Dan is thoroughly distraught about his life becoming in shambles. The call to Tokyo, he believed, would take his mind off matters.

In October of 1995, Lita Kino - secretly known to Japan as Sailor Jupiter, guardian of the Moon Princess Serena and protector of Earth - has a horrible nightmare about being struck down by a man in a gray attire while being held in the arms of a man in green battle armor. As she faded in her dream, she witnessed him being struck down by the same man.

Being lonely and confused about the situation she consulted her fellow Sailor Scouts Serena Tsukino and Amy Muzuno - Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury respectively - to learn former Negaverse General Jedite was the man in gray. After another consultation with Raye Hino and Mina Aino - Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus - they learn of the man in green battle armor, but don't know what to make of it.

In October of 1995, Dan Shannon investigated the school nearby the park and detected a strange energy signature on his PKE Meter.

In October of 1995, Lita Kino needed to go to her locker, and heard a strange noise.

They rounded the corner…

This is how Dan and Lita met.

It had become clear Jedite was behind the disappearances in the park, having risen from the grave. After an ultimatum, Jedite had repeated his threat onto the city of Tokyo to burn it to ashes if the three Sailor Scouts who were present during his last battle did not repeat said battle. The Ghostbusters - also witnessing the projected warning in the sky - mobilized to the Tokyo International Airport in fear the Sailor Scouts didn't exist.

This only angered Jedite.

While two Boeing 747s where under Jedite's control, Dan and Sailor Jupiter were captured between them. Not knowing Sailor Jupiter was Lita, but still feeling a sense of urgency to the situation, Dan fired his Proton Pack's particle stream into one of the jets blowing out it's nose landing gear. As this happened, the symbol of Jupiter appeared on his chest. The planes collided as they dove out of the way.

After a failed capture attempt on the Ghostbusters' part, Dan and Sailor Jupiter awoke after the collision to have Dan recognize not only was Sailor Jupiter the girl from his nightmare, but that _Lita_ was Sailor Jupiter. Terrified that Dan had figured out her secret, Sailor Jupiter follows her fellow Scouts into the plumes of smoke emanating from the wreckage and disappear.

After the ordeal, and Dan confronting Lita about her abilities, the Sailor Scouts learn that the Ghostbusters are fighting on the same side as them and hatch an alliance to stop Jedite. There is more to the story as after Dan returns to the temporary headquarters in an unused American Embassy building, he is confronted by the Scouts' cat guardians Luna and Artemis. They reveal onto Dan he is what is known as a Solar Knight - one of the Protectors of the inner belt Sailor Scouts…

He is Jupiter Knight.

Back at Raye's family temple, whilst the Sailor Scouts and the Ghostbusters strike their alliance Jedite appears as a projection in the temple and challenges both groups. If either one of them wanted to see the people who were abducted from the city park alive, they were to fight their way through Starlight Tower.

Separated but with their counterparts, the Ghostbusters and the Sailor Scouts clear level by level while finding the missing members of their respective teams. After several mishaps, Sailor Jupiter is abducted by the sub-level demons roaming the building. Dan goes on an insane rampage fighting through his pain to reach the top of the tower before Jedite's set deadline. It wasn't long until both teams find Jupiter battered and beaten on one of the floors.

Once on the roof, it is soon discovered that not only were the Ghostbusters actively helping Jedite by releasing the energy from the possessed people within the tower to return them to normal, but that Sailor Jupiter had not escaped Jedite's hold. The Sailor Jupiter that had been with the team was a decoy; a doppleganger that nearly kills Dan with his own Proton Pack. Trapping the creature with a hidden Ghost Trap on his pack, the real Sailor Jupiter - who was hung from a transmission tower on the roof - is then struck by another energy bolt from Jedite's hand.

Once the other Ghostbusters and Sailor Scouts ran onto the roof attacking the demons Dan ran to the tower. After managing to climb all the way up and retrieving her, it was already too late. After a tearful goodbye, Sailor Jupiter - Lita Kino - succumbed to her wounds and died in Dan's arms.

The rest of the Scouts and Ghostbusters became immobilized after the Scouts became fatigued and the Ghostbusters Proton Packs ran out of power. Finally having enough, Dan transformed into Jupiter Knight in full battle regalia. After slaughtering the all of the sub-demons, Jupiter Knight set his sights on Jedite. After a long and grueling fight, Jupiter Knight managed to get back to his Proton Pack and start firing the pack at Jedite.

Jedite was too powerful for the beam to be effective. That was until Jupiter Knight concentrated as his energy seeped into the casing of the device and started overcharging the pack to the point it nearly overloaded. He managed to to finally contain Jedite's form, but he had reached behind him to discover his last Ghost Trap was used.

Jedite, in final stride, called the for the power harvested throughout the building and enabled himself to become an extremely powerful sub-deity. It was an energy level not which the Ghostbusters had ever seen. Opening a portal to a netherrealm, Jupiter Knight was thrown in.

During the fight, an energy bolt had flown in an errant direction to the ectoplasmic bonds on Sailor Mars' wrist which loosened it. Just as Jedite was about to kill the remaining Sailor Scouts and Ghostbusters, Jupiter Knight reemerged from the portal and with several other arms helping, they grabbed ahold of Jedite and pulled him into the void. Sailor Mars manages to finally pull free and frees the others from their bonds.

The portal was now out of control and ever widening. Using the power of the portal in conjunction with their Proton Packs, the Ghostbusters pulled what was left of Jedite's sub-demon thralls out of the building and into the void and the void itself started to close. Despite knowing it would entrap Jupiter Knight - Dan Shannon - their fellow Ghostbuster and friend - in a spirit realm, the Ghostbusters regretfully begin closing the portal to save the rest of the world.

The Packs never fully recharged. In the middle of the operation, the Packs started to fail again. Knowing this was the only opportunity, the remaining Sailor Scouts begin overcharging the Ghostbusters' equipment with their powers to seal the portal.

Feeling a sense of loss, both teams of heroes begin morning. Unbeknownst to them, the remaining energy left from the portal destruction started to loom the building awaking the fallen people throughout, including Sailor Jupiter. After learning what had happened to Jupiter Knight, Sailor Jupiter broke down. Just as she had given up hope, Jupiter Knight reappeared in the location the portal was open. It would have been a happy ending…

But that's only half of the story.

Shortly after the Ghostbusters returned to New York, the operation closed. From the damage sustained during the mission in Tokyo, on the authority of the American Ambassador of Japan, the payment was denied. After going their own ways, Egon remained in the firehouse to watch over the Containment Unit, and Dan returned home to Chicago to start his post-Ghostbusters career as a telephone lineman.

Lita had continued her life as both a student and Sailor Scout still fighting evil forces. As time went forward she continued to correspond with Dan through letters to each other, her hearing of his work, and him receiving pictures of her and the other Scouts. Eventually, the forces of the Negaverse ceased. The Scouts eventually faded from the public life for there was no more evil threatening the world in their corner of the world. Happiness still reigned between them despite being thousands of miles apart.

The happiness ended after 4 years. Looking forward to going to culinary school in France, Lita had received a letter that looked to be one of Dan's…

It was from her Grandfather.

He was dying from cancer.

Years had passed. Dan had been laid off from the phone company after a merger with a larger company leaving him on the verge of bankruptcy. On the off chance while watching TV to subdue his mind, he learns the Ghostbusters had now been placed back into action. Egon had recruited students from his class at New York Community College - Roland Jackson, Kylie Griffin, Eduardo Rivera, and Garrett Miller - to be the next generation of Ghostbusters. It was clear where he needed to go.

Working as the new team leader, Dan lead these new, "Extreme" Ghostbusters on a great deal of cases saving New York time and again from a new breed of ghosts. Even though Dan has pulled the team from inexplicable danger, resentment runs rampant amongst the new team over his methodology.

In June of 2002, Dan learns his brother had become married and that he is now an Uncle of a little girl. After a conflict with Eduardo's brother Carlos, Dan finally reveals his loneliness and sense of abandonment with team secretary Janine Melnitz. Confessing his love for Lita, he resigns to the fact he will never see her again and is doomed to be hated by the team.

In June of 2002, Lita - now an adult woman working as a lowly waitress for a very hostile woman - is feeling entrapment she never thought possible. In an attempt to obtain a loan to finally start her own business, she is denied. No money, no future without difficulty, she regretfully resigned herself to a life of indentured servitude to make ends meet. On the night of her bank loan denial and subsequent beratement by her boss, she proceeds to Raye's temple on Cherry Hill as she had for years to meet with the other Sailor Scouts. During their meeting, it is learned Egon Spenger had contacted Amy to request Lita to come to New York. When Lita learns Dan is the new team's leader, she immediately quits her job, packs up, and leaves for New York.

On another routine day, Dan and Roland depart for the auto parts store to replace parts on the teams secondary vehicle when Lita arrives at the Ghostbusters firehouse. She enters to meet Janine and meet with her old friend Egon. The other members of the team meet Lita with warmth.

That was, until Egon tells them Lita is Dan's girlfriend.

In June of 2002, Dan felt a familiar sensation while outside the front of the firehouse. He proceeds to run inside.

In June of 2002, while talking to Egon and the new team, Lita feels a sense of warmth she hadn't sensed in what seemed to be forever. She turned.

After nearly 7 years, Dan and Lita were back together again.

The reunion was short lived when a massive grouping of calls came in about a monster crashing through neighborhoods in midtown Manhattan. Dan and Eduardo go ahead of the others to investigate. During their radio-in, Lita hears of the destruction and begins to worry for Dan's life. After the other Ghostbusters leave in Ecto-1, Lita proceeds to grab her transformation wand from her baggage and hightail it to the Chelsea neighborhood.

After driving through destroyed streets and buildings, Dan and Eduardo discover a Draugr - a Norse creature of evil - destroying everything around it. The two Ghostbusters barely escaped the creature, but at the cost of severely damaging the Ghostbusters Supplemental Ectoplasmic Response Vehicle - the Chevy S-10 Xtreme Dan belovingly called Lucky Black.

Lita departs a cab in the neighboring neighborhood and transforms again into Sailor Jupiter. She spots the Draugr and attempts to destroy the beast, but it instead grabs her and proceeds to perform severe bodily harm to her.

Dan awakes from the accident inflicted on the truck and starts empathically sensing Sailor Jupiter's pain. Instructing Eduardo to exit, he started the damaged truck and ran his way back to the creature's location with the Guardian in it's hand. Dan rams the truck into the creature allowing Sailor Jupiter to be set free, but it only slowed the creature down. Trying to use his Proton Pack, Dan was only able to do minimal damage before the creature grabbed him forcing him to overload the pack.

No more equipment and now alone, Dan did the only thing he could to save Sailor Jupiter and himself. Using his civilian-form powers as Jupiter Knight, he proceeds to tear the Draugr apart, knocking it down enough to get a Ghost Trap on the beast and trap its essence.

Sailor Jupiter was hurt badly. After another tearful goodbye, Lita had again succumbed to her wounds. Refusing to let go, Dan uses one more of his powers and heals her. The massive light between them alerts the other Ghostbusters, but find no reading associated with the light on their PKE meters. The energy exchange brings Sailor Jupiter back to life, but nearly kills Dan; after she escapes, he collapses into a coma from the energy drain. After being indisposed for 2 days, Dan finally awakes. Lita feels an incredible guilt about the situation. Because of a massive uptick of paranormal activity in the city, she joins the Ghostbusters.

A new order starts in the city. After the abduction of a prisoner in transport to the prison, a cult calling themselves the Order of Asatro led by the mysterious Madame Holly perform a sacrifice to gain access to a magical recorder. Capable of great destruction, parts of the music used in Ragnarok were split up to prevent anyone from initiating the end of the world, but it isn't the first time in recent memory the recorder was used.

After an earthquake shakes New York, Egon discovers the energy used in the event matched a signature he saw during Jeremy Whittington's raign some 17 years before. The newly formed night team consisting of Dan, Eduardo, and Lita using a new vehicle proceed to Jeremy's home for answers. Cindy - Jeremy's wife - informs them Jeremy had passed away, but his friend DyTyllio may have the answers they seek.

It was now a race between the Order and the Ghostbusters to find the remaining stanzas of the Symphony of Destruction, but without knowing of the Order's existence, the Ghostbusters are fighting blind.

With more of an idea of what's going on, the Ghostbusters get to work searching for the recorder, but find the trail was rather cold. After some brainstorming, the team sought out the abilities of Raye and her ability to fire-read to get a new lead on the documents. After looking over the information with Amy and Mina, Raye performs the reading only to have the flames produce a negative effect. Shortly after unpossessing Raye with a combination temple charm covered in Psychomagnotheric slime supplied by the Ghostbusters, Amy calls to inform Dan and Egon of the situation.

This is where our story resumes…


	2. Rerouted

Chapter 2: Rerouted

Tuesday June 24th, 2002

Venice, Italy

12:30 PM

Venice - the Italian city of love. It was a very beautiful morning going into the afternoon. Serena Tsukino and Darien Chiba - also known to the city of Tokyo as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask - were on vacation and had been for some time. After visiting the Swiss Alps and Paris, France, they were on their second to last stop in their vacation. Having lunch beside the waterways that made up the city, they bathed in the sun of the Italian skies, "Oh, would you look at that sky?" Serena asked as she listened to the gondola drivers sing. Darien, putting down the espresso he was drinking to take notice. The young Blonde-haired pig-tailed girl giggled as she removed her sunglasses to look back at her lover.

Darien looked to what she saw and couldn't help but smile. After everything they went through, and after Darien had finally finished college, the two of them were finally together and doing things they wanted to. Of the trials and tribulations their love had, and all the attempts the Negaverse and other evil forces made to destroy the Earth and all of the universe, it was finally time to enjoy what their lives would eventually become. Knowing the day of Crystal Tokyo was a sure future for them, they made an attempt to see the world before it changed.

As we had already seen, not all futures are that solid.

Darien peered to the sky, but noticed something was… off. The clouds were starting to close in, but it wasn't due to be like this today. When Serena saw Darien's expression change, she looked back to the sky and noticed what he did, "Whoa, weird weather." "Serena," Darien stood from his seat as he looked to the sky, "this is like what happened when we were coming down from Paris a couple of days ago. Remember?"

She stood from her seat as well as she looked to her dark-haired fiance, "Yeah, it didn't feel natural then, either." "That's what I mean." That was when the wind started to pick up. The weather's sudden change wasn't the only thing that was weird in that moment. From the sky after a flash of light were dark creatures with bat-like wings. They descended from the clouds and swooped down towards the people on the sidewalks and riding in the gondolas. At a cafe across the waterway, one of the creatures started attacking the people, them standing quickly as the creature started swiping at the table slicing it in two with its claws.

A gondola driver was trying to tie off his craft once at a sidewalk attempting to escape when another creature grabbed him and dragged him high into the air. Struggling to be let go, the creature finally released him causing him to fall into the narrow waters on the city. The creature laughed as the man hit the water. The sight before them was sudden and terrifying as Serena froze in fear watching the horror before her, "Darien? What's going on?"

"I-I donno!" He was just as confused as her. It started as such a clear and crisp day as it just suddenly became horrifying. A creature swooped down and was about to attack Serena when Darien sensed it approaching. He dove towards her and knocked her down as the creature demolished the table they sat at. As quickly as the chaos started…

The creatures retreated.

Thunder rumbled in the sky as the two stood up and looked to the destruction before them. The pier was wrecked, the cafes and other vendors along the waterways were destroyed, and people were hurt. Serena was shaken as she looked at the hurt people, "Oh, no! What were those horrible things? Why did they hurt those people?" That was when there was a beeping. Inside her purse was where it came from. She went back to her chair and grabbed it and opened it. She took out a card-sized device with a round screen in the upper corner. It was her Sailor Scout communicator and Amy was calling, "_Serena. Serena, are you there?"_ Amy's face appeared on the small screen as Serena answered, "Yeah, I'm here, Amy! I'm so glad you called…"

"_Serena, where are you and Darien right now?"_

"We're in Venice. We got here a couple of days ago. You wouldn't believe what just happened…"

Amy cut her off again, "_Nevermind that now, we have a real emergency here. This is actual Sailor business!"_ "As opposed to the monsters that came out of the sky to attack us?" Serena asked irritated. Amy's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth, "_Oh no! It's starting there, too?"_ Darien looked over Serena's shoulder to the communication device, "What do you mean, 'There, too'? Amy, what's going on?"

"_We learned of a relic that originates from the Negaverse that's being used to destroy the world. I need to know, were you still planning on going to New York as your last stop?"_

"Well, yeah," Serena was confused. She looked to Darien, then back to the communicator, "Why?"

Friday June 27th, 2002

New York City, NY USA

6:45 AM

The streets were total chaos. It was somewhat calm a few days before, but suddenly things went psychotic for what appeared to be no reason. Bat-like creatures screeched as they tore through the air destroying everything in their sight. Everything from storefronts to parked cars. Ecto-1 - the 1959 Cadillac Meteor-Miller coach ambulance that was the Ghostbusters primary mode of transportation - screams around the corner with its lights and sirens running. Behind the wheel was Roland Jackson, the team technician and engineer. Beside him was Kylie Griffin, the team occultist. She had a PKE meter in front of her, "This looks to be the highest concentration. Roland, stop the car!"

The brakes of the vehicle locked as the car came screeching to a stop. The back door of the vehicle opened and a ramp deployed as the 3rd member of the team Garrett Miller - a parapalegic adrenaline junkie who does the job for kicks - rolls out of the back in his wheelchair and looks to the sky. He saw several of the bat-like beasts above, "Geez, we gotta regular Batman convention in the sky," he pulled his particle thrower from his Proton Pack and charged it up, "It would be nice if these things didn't make such an early amount of racket; I haven't even had breakfast!"

The others had exited the vehicle as they also charged their equipment up, "Alright everyone," Roland tuned his thrower, "Let's try a different megahertz setting. 260,000 should do it." Everyone adjusted their throwers accordingly and started firing at the creatures. All three of them fired their packs into the sky as the beams struck the beasts, but it had no effect. One of the beasts screamed down and grabbed Garrett out of his chair, subsequently throwing him into a fruit stand on top of tomatoes. Roland and Kylie ran toward him and pulled him out, "I can't believe this!" he was extremely annoyed, "We've hit these things with everything we had! What's the deal?"

As Kylie ran back to grab Garrett's chair, Roland hefted him up as he explained, "Egon explained it," Kylie finally arrived with Garrett's chair and eased him into it as he continued, "The creatures we're fighting aren't Ectoplasmic. They've got an ionization the packs can't latch onto. Dan, Eduardo, and Lita have been having the same problem."

"Yeah, but I bet they're not being doused in Ragu sauce," to illustrate his point, Garrett flung tomato chunks off his arms.

"No, worse," Kylie pulled out her Proton Pistol again and made more adjustments, "Eduardo ended up getting thrown into an office window, and Lita was thrown into a garbage dumpster. Dan was pretty angry about the latter."

"I seriously don't know what she sees in that guy," Garrett rung the tomato juice from his suit's sleeve then retrieved his thrower, "You'd think she'd wanna date someone that wasn't a raving lunatic." Roland started getting irritated with him again, "Garrett, how many times have I told you…" "I know, big guy, I know, but there's something you need to know about their relationship…"

7:15 AM

On the other side of the island, Dan Shannon - team leader and engineer of the Ghostbusters - was roaming around with his window down on his 1986 F-150. Out of the window in his hand was a PKE meter tuned to a special frequency to locate artifacts associated with an artifact that could start the end of the world - Ragnarok. Out the passenger side of the truck was Eduardo Rivera - the team's resident smartass. He had another meter programmed to do the same thing. In the back seat was Lita Kino - known only in secret as Sailor Jupiter and Dan's girlfriend - asleep. She was resting her head against the rear pillar of the truck.

Dan looked into the rearview mirror and saw her asleep. He sighed as he looked to his own mirror and looked at his face for a brief moment. He was sporting some severe bags under his eyes. The last few days have taken a toll on his body. As soon as Lita's friend and fellow Sailor Scout Amy Mizuno called the Ghostbusters' office, all hell suddenly broke loose, and it looked to be worldwide. In that time, both shifts of Ghostbusters were running ragged trying to locate a set of scrolls that contained the Symphony of Destruction.

Amy - Sailor Mercury in her other life - along with Mino Aino - Sailor Venus - had gone on to help Raye Hino - Sailor Mars - with a fire reading utilizing information Dr. Egon Spengler - Co-Founder of the Ghostbusters - had provided. The information sent included texts and descriptions to help locate the relics involved, but something had gone wrong with the fire reading causing Raye to become possessed. After being able to free Raye from her possession, Amy called the office and informed them that the recorder that would be used to play the Symphony was in fact a Negaverse tool.

It was a terrifying idea. The worst part, the only ones that know about the Negaverse were the Scouts, the original Ghostbusters, and himself. The new team… Dan wasn't sure what to do about them. It was already a burden being Jupiter Knight - Sailor Jupiter's Solar Knight - and keep it from them, but now it may be the only way to stop what's going on. The second he were to reveal his abilities to them, it would surely make him lose whatever respect he had.

"Yeah, right," Dan muttered to himself, "Like they even _have _any for me to begin with." Eduardo looked over to his boss, "What?" Dan just realized what he said. He rolled his tired eyes at his own stupidity and responded, "Don't mind me, Eddie, I was talking to myself."

"I know, man," Eduardo sounded sympathetic as he looked to him, "We'll find what we're looking for," he looked back out the window, now him muttering to himself, "and when we do, we'll finally get some sleep."

That was when the radio came to life, "_**Egon to teams one and two: Come in." **_Dan heard Roland respond first, "_**Team one here."**_ Dan pulled the truck over, put the meter down, and responded on the mic, "Team two, go ahead." "_**Both teams, report back to the firehouse. We have information coming in on the fly you'll all need to be briefed on." **_Dan and Eduardo listened in after a burst of static was heard, "_**We're still dealing with the flying terrors out here on the street." "Acknowledged, Team One. As much as I don't want to pull you off the detail, we need you both back here ASAP." **_Dan and Eduardo heard tension in Roland's voice as he responded, "_**Understood. Team one out." **_"Orders understood, Team two out."

As Dan hung the mic back onto the radio, Eduardo pulled his arm back into the cab and started rolling up the window. Dan put the vehicle back into gear and started rolling forward as Eduardo looked to him, "I don't like this, Dan. We've been on this Mickey Mouse goose chase for 3 days and we only covered _half_ of this stupid island with nada to show for it! On top of that, those Bat-things are makin' us nuts!" "I hear ya, man," the blonde-haired engineer said as he scratched his now unruly beard. He looked back into the rearview to look at the sleeping woman in the backseat again just for him to sigh an anxious sigh.

Eduardo took notice of this, "You're really worried about her, aren't you?" "I just don't want her to get hurt," he looked back to the road as he kept talking, "After being thrown into that dumpster two nights ago, and you being thrown into that office, this job just became too damn dangerous. The poor woman's fought enough in her life."

"Hey, she made her choice, right?"

"Yeah, but…" Dan had a real hard time expressing how he was feeling in a way that didn't reveal who the both of them were. He took so much time to explain it, Eduardo tried to figure it out for himself, "Does it have to do with that… _thing…_ you're embarrassed about?" by this time, the jarring of the truck's movement caused Lita to stir. She was starting to come around when Dan went to answer him, "Dude, it would be for the best you don't go around talking about that." "Hey, I'm not the one who has the problem with his girlfriend."

"I don't have a problem with Lita!" Dan was starting to get annoyed.

"Hey, you were the one who told me _you_ were embarrassed about your relationship with her." Lita heard that and started listening in. That bothered her. "Look, asshole," Dan's patience was getting short now. The tone of his voice telegraphed it, "How I feel about Lita is _my_ goddamn business. I should have _known_ better than to tell your stupid ass!" Lita didn't like that. She started getting upset. She looked to the rearview mirror and noticed Dan was about to look into it. She quickly curled up and rested her head back against the wall of the truck, turning her head away to where Dan couldn't see her eyes. Dan looked to her and saw her still asleep, but now shifted positions.

"Alright, alright!" Eduardo said as he began dropping the subject, "Remember one thing: It's on you. Not me. I'm just trying to help." Lita continued to listen to the tension in Dan's voice as he responded, "Well, try helping me by shutting up. Sound good? Does that sound like a plan to you?" "Yeah, whatever." The rest of the ride became silent as Lita tried to figure out what the two of them were talking about. Her green eyes shifted back and forth as she began to think of the worst. Was his feelings for her an act? Had he really lost interest in her? Why was he embarrassed of their relationship? The answers were not coming to her.

At this moment, a long fuse has been lit. When it would reach the end was anyone's guess…

Ghostbusters HQ

7:45 AM

Both Ectomobiles arrived at the firehouse and parked in their usual spots. Dan, Lita, and Eduardo walked in as Roland, Kylie, and Garrett exited the Ecto-1. Dan got a good look at what happened to Garrett, "Jesus, Miller, what'd you do? Piss off the Hinez family?" All Garrett did was grumble as he rolled to the elevator to change. Dan shook his head, "Can dish it, but can't stomach it. Christ."

Egon was standing next to Janine's desk as he called the teams over, "After Raye had finally regained consciousness, she sent all we were looking for. She sent a detailed report on what the reading gave," he lifted up the much smaller stack of papers than what he sent. He started flipping through the papers as he began reading off certain pieces of information, "It took a couple of days to cross-reference the information, but to start, the book that was taken was an old copy of _Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok_; an Icelandic Saga. It was said to be written in handwritten text, and most likely transcribed in the 13th century from the original scrolls."

"The Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok?" Kylie was rather surprised, "Thora Borgarhjört and the Lindworm! Of course!" Everyone in the room had a blank look on their faces. She looked around her to see no one understood, "Thora Borgarhjört and the Lindworm? Do any of you guys know what that means?" "Yes, I do Kylie," Dan started sarcastically, "I just like looking confused for shits and giggles." "What that means is, the guardian inside the book was the Lindworm. Well, it was more like a serpent. It spit this really nasty poison that could eat through everything. Ragnar defeated the serpent using layers of fur and tar to protect himself from the serpents poison. Eduardo told me yesterday what happened to the guard," She turned to Eduardo, "Tell them!"

"I talked to Manny again last night," Eduardo was rather disturbed now that he heard what Kylie had said, "Toxicology report came back stating the woman had a forigen chemical in her system. Autopsy revealed lung damage. Something like high-dose cyanide poisoning in a vaporous form would cause such a condition." "Oh, wow," Roland was impressed, "Eduardo, I didn't know you knew so much about biology!"

"I don't," he looked to his fellow Ghostbuster, "Criminal Psychology 101. Effects of common fast-acting poisons on human tissues, and their intent of use on a victim." He even looked to Egon to see a surprised look on his face. He crossed his arms and gave a smirk as Dan came up and patted him on the shoulder. The team's leader turned to Roland as he looked for more information, "Any theories?"

"Considering the Lindworm's ecto trail is giving off the PKE signature we're looking for, we have to assume one of the Stanzas is possibly bonded to the book somehow. Whatever happened, someone knew of the book's significance before we even had a clue."

"That's what bothers me," Dan started to pace back between Janine's desk and the Ecto-1, "Whoever these guys are, they're well organized. They have a great deal of knowledge of this recorder considering its origin." "Its Norse," Kylie stated assuredly, "its origin is not that hard to decern." Dan stopped and looked at Lita, then to Egon as she said that. Egon looked back at them. They were having a silent conversation. Kylie took notice, "What? Is there something else?"


	3. Heart Of Stone

Chapter 3: Heart of Stone

Friday June 27th, 2002

Staten Island

9:26 AM

In an undisclosed location, a concrete mill was having its main support and elevator structure reinforced. After the earthquake on Sunday of that week, Steelworking crews worked vigorously to repair the small steel scaffold. The workers of the concrete plant were barred from entering the site due to the construction. The foreman from the facility walked to the office trailer. He was an older black man with a beard and a balding head, but was unseen due to his hardhat being on his head. He was very angry.

The man opened the office door and stepped in, "Goddamn fuckin' bullshit," the man took off his hardhat revealing his thinning hairline. After he hung the hat on a coat hook on the door, he turned to his desk and received a shock, "AH!" He grabbed his chest and looked back up, "Mr. St. James! Good God, you scared the shit outta me!" "That was not my intention," an even-toned voice spoke. The older black man looked to his desk to find Matthew standing before it, still wearing his all-black attire and his silver hair slicked back. He looked to the foreman with an inquisitive expression on his face, "What seems to be upsetting you, Mr. Hacker?"

Hacker's voice started to raise, "What's pissin' me off, you mean? My guys checked the scaffold on the elevator Monday mornin' like you asked, and nothin' was wrong with it! Why the fuck have you stopped production? We're loosin' money every day we can't load cement trucks for work!"

"It's not that we doubt your assessment of the structure, Mr. Hacker, but Ms. Bautista had been planning to implement changes to the structure for some time. Your crew is still being paid, are they not?"

"Sir, with all due respect," Hacker retrieved a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "you're missin' the point. We know how this score works; you take your time for this, and later when the loss in profit happens, we get axed! We've been seein' this for years!"

Matthew's eyes began to narrow, "Are you questioning the owner of Stoneface Masonry?" "You know what? I am! That woman's been fuckin' up since her father…" "ENOUGH!" Matthew's voice projected loud cutting the man off, "Since you think that way about Ms. Bautista, then you can go ahead and vacate this office. Leave your keys, your badge, and your tools. You're done here."

Without missing a beat, the man pulled the keys off his ring, took his badge from his wallet, and threw the both of them to the floor, "Now you better listen to _me_, Dracula: I worked for Mr. Bautista for 15 years. Because of you and his daughter, this place is dyin', and I ain't waitin' for it to flatline like she made him do. You and that fucking alcoholic whore and go fuck yourselves." With that, Hacker turned and walked out of the trailer, slamming the door behind him.

Matthew calmly walked to the badge and keys on the floor and picked up the badge. He looked at the man's picture on the plastic card, "Mr. Issac Hacker, I do believe you're about to see the end before the rest of us." Matthew intently focused on the card until the plastic started to bend over. It began to liquify and drip from the man's hand like candle wax to the floor, the man's picture warping and twisting as the plastic flowed.

Outside in the parking lot, Hacker made his way to his truck swearing to himself as he did. His keys out and ready to open the truck, a hand clasped onto the man's shoulder causing him to jump and turn, "Jesus Christ!" He saw one of his men behind him, "Hey, Mr. Hacker, where ya goin'?"

It took a moment for him to regain his sense of self, but he looked to the younger man before him, "Sorry, Tim, I…" he took a deep breath, "Tim, I finally told that fuckin' vampire off. I ain't your foremen no more." "What?" the man was in shock, "Why?"

"There's somethin' bad wrong with that man, kid. If I were you, I'd get outta this company before…" SCREECH! Both men turned to the noise and found multiple objects circling overhead. There were three of them. One broke off and started diving toward them, "Oh, shit! Tim, run!" Both men dropped to the ground as a bat-like creature buzzed them. As the creature flew back up, Hacker got into his truck as Tim ran in the other direction.

Hacker backed his truck up blindly and ran into another parked vehicle. Paying no mind to it, being scared out of his mind about the creature that attacked him, he threw the vehicle back into gear and started driving like crazy out of the parking lot and onto the road. The creature pursued.

Taking another dive at the truck, the creature tore the roof off the cab exposing Hacker to the outside of the vehicle. Another of the creatures swooped behind and managed to grab the man out of his seat, leaving the truck without a driver to crash into a telephone pole.

Hacker screamed in terror as he found himself several hundred feet off the ground. The creature started flying over a set of buildings in the distance…

An open sign just lit up in the window of a small bar. Inside, the bartender started walking his way toward the bar as the only waitress in the place stood by the register. She looked at her watch and shook her head, "I donno why you're doing this."

"Doing what?" he apparently wasn't just the bartender, but also the owner the way she addressed him. "You know what. I get it; it's Friday. Opening this early isn't going to bring in any more people."

"What about those guys at the cement place down the street? They've been barred all week. Something about their facility needing fixin' after that earthquake."

"Still," she turned to the man, "who from there is gonna wanna crash this place at _this_ time of day?"

CRASH! Through the ceiling came Issac Hacker. He landed onto the bar and cracked the bartop in half. The owner and waitress jumped back, the waitress screaming. Hacker was bleeding from his shoulders, gashes left in his shirt. It took a few moments for anyone to react, but they looked up to find the creatures hovering overhead laughing as they did. As soon as they were spotted, the creatures flew away.

Hacker moaned as he tried to move. He faintly opened his eyes, "Get… help…" he passed out.

11:10 AM

"And you said they just attacked _him_ specifically?" Kylie was interviewing Tim, the cement plant worker. Ecto-1 was sitting at the parking lot of the cement plant. Garrett and Roland were checking as much of the area as they could considering the construction.

"Y-yeah. He was about to leave until I caught up with him. Found he was just fired." Garrett rolled up, "Man, talk about your bad day. Lose your job, get attacked by monsters, then thrown into someone's roof? At the very least, he was able to get a shot a whiskey afterwards." With that he wheeled off into Roland's direction.

Kylie looked to the poor man, "Why did he get fired?" "Ever since the earthquake on Sunday, we've been barred from the jobsite because they decided to work on the scaffold holding up the elevator. We checked the scaffold on Monday and we didn't find any damage, but the company decided to work on it anyway."

"No damage?" Kylie was raising an eyebrow.

Away from the two of them, Roland and Garrett were getting closer to the scaffold abet behind a fence. Garrett was much closer to it than Roland was. He was squinting at his meter, seeing readings that didn't make any sense, "Hey, Rolo, you gotta check this out."

Roland walked up and looked to the man in the wheelchair, "What do you got?" "This is weird. Every time I point my meter at the scaffold, I get this weird pulsing. Is it just my meter?" Roland looked to Garrett's meter, then attempted to do the same with his own. He was getting the same. The both of them watched as the steelworkers used arc welders to secure pieces of the structure into place.

After a bit, Roland shook his head, "It might just be the EM flux coming from the arc welders. EM radiation can affect the background PKE field, that might explain the pulsing. It looks in sync with an AC sine wave."

"Sign… Wave?" Garrett raised an eyebrow, "Like what? 'Slippery When Wet'?" Roland facepalmed himself, "Why do I even bother?"

"I don't understand this," inside the Ecto-1, all three of them conversed about the call, Kylie reviewing the PKE meter data, "I mean, why would these things attack Manhattan for almost three days straight, then suddenly attack one cement plant worker in the boondocks?"

Garrett hung over the back of the front seat, "Maybe they were getting tired of throwing us around because we shoot back?"

"It wasn't like we were doing any damage to 'em," Roland started the car, "Even then, Kylie's right. They would be terrorizing the whole island the same way as everywhere else."

"Maybe this place is special?" Garrett said as he slunk back into his seat. He looked out his window to see a black BMW pull into the parking lot and up to the office trailer. A beautiful dark-haired woman with bright red lipstick and a short skirt stepped out, a dark pair of Ray Bans over her eyes. Garrett saw her turn and face the Ectomobile, her lowering her sunglasses to look with her gray eyes. "Oh-La-La, I _know_ this place is special now!"

Roland looked to see what he saw, "Who _is_ that?" "That has to be Holly Bautista," Kylie responded, her getting a good look at the woman, "She owns this cement plant." "She may own the cement plant," Garrett was looking at her legs, "but she's _definitely_ carved from marble!"

"From what I've heard, that's not too far from the truth," Kylie watched as she turned and approached the trailer office, "Cold and hard."

The office door slammed as Madame Holly tore the sunglasses from her face, "Matthew, what in the _hell_ are the Ghostbusters doing here?!"

"My Gydje, it was outside of my control. One of our workers was attacked. He called on them."

"And you didn't do anything to _stop them?_"

"There was nothing I could do," Matthew's voice had the same steady tone he's had throughout, him calmly walking to the office window to see the Ecto-1 pull out from the parking lot, "the creatures were released when you played the First Stanza," the Ecto-1 pulled onto the road and disappeared, "Who they attack is who they attack. Besides," he turned to her, "it makes us look like victims. We're just another statistic to them."


	4. Cesium and Water

Chapter 4: Cesium and Water

Friday June 27th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

1:22 PM

Outside the firehouse an airport shuttle pulls to the curb behind the black F-150. The driver steps out and begins to unload his passenger's luggage.

Inside the building, Dan sat in Peter's old office with Lita as they looked over the map of the city. Various neighborhoods were highlighted in different colors, nearly half of the map had X's over the neighborhoods. Dan lowered his head, his hands on the back of his neck as he tried to concentrate on where he needed to route the team next. Knowing in a few hours the next shift will have to take over creature detail, Dan was beginning to stress out, "Fuck, what do we do?" He pulled his hands away from his neck and looked up, "We can only keep this up for so long. We only have so many Proton Canisters we can refill in a short time."

"We'll find it, Dan," Lita's voice was somber and motherly, her placing her hand on his. He looked into her green eyes. He could see she was just as worried as him. All it did was make him feel even worse. Lita could feel it from him, "We _will_ find it. Don't worry, Egon will find a way to explain the Negaverse to the others." Lita had an intensity in her voice. She smiled a very tired smile as she gripped his hand tighter.

Dan looked to her. There was a worry. All Dan felt in terms of her was guilt. He missed her so bad, he confessed to Janine about her. Of everything, Dan absolutely hated himself now that Lita was here because now he was placing her in danger again. She almost died being here more than once. After she almost broke her neck being thrown into the dumpster no more than a few days ago, all he wanted to do was distance himself from her knowing he was a jinx.

Dan took both his hands and gripped her hand tightly, "I don't doubt it, but… I'm gettin' that feeling again, honey. I-I can't…" She took her free hand and caressed his bearded face. He started to calm down a bit, "It's okay, Dan. It's okay. We have a few hours before we start, why not take a nap or something while…" "I can't take a nap right now," he released her hand and put his hands to his head as he looked again to the map, "Eduardo's taking his; I have this route to plot so the next shift doesn't double over the same ground; I have packs to repair; canisters to recharge…"

"Dan!" Lita's voice picked up a bit as she had a hint of exacerbation in it, "You're putting too much on yourself! I know you care about these guys, but you have to delegate!" "Delegate what? To these guys? I'd rather delegate to a brick wall; it'd get more work done!"

"These guys trust you more than you think."

He looked her square in the eye, "They got a funny way of expressing it."

Janine was on the phone with a customer as she was typing on her computer when one of the main doors opened, "Yes, I understand the ghost in your apartment shaved your cat bald, but we have a city-wide emergency going on right now…" looked up and found a group of 5 people walking into the garage area and approach. They looked peculiar to her; 4 women and one man. She was looking at them from her position when she realized the person on the phone was still talking, "I'm sorry, what?... Then give the cat a goddamn sweater," she hung up the phone and addressed the group, "Hello, can I help you?"

One of the women approached the desk. She had short blue hair. She addressed Janine, "Yes, this is the Ghostbusters office, correct?"

"It sure is, young lady," Janine moved away from her computer as the woman bowed, "I'm pleased to meet you, we're friends of Dr. Spengler, Dan Shannon, and Lita Kino. We were wondering if we could speak with them?"

A brown haired head popped up from behind Janine's filing cabinets as she looked over to the crowd, "Amy?" The girls in the group's faces lit up as they saw her walk out of Peter Venkman's old office, "Lita!" The girls rushed over and began hugging her. The man of the group walked up slowly as she also went to hug him, "Guys, what are you doing here?"

"After Raye's mishap, we decided to come here to help. We ended up grounded in Las Vegas and had to take charter flights all the way here because of the attacks."

"You guys took a massive risk coming here." The girls looked to the voice and saw Dan walking out of the office behind Lita. The girls again screamed out in unison, "DAN!" The blue haired girl and the girl with long black hair ran up and hugged Dan on each side, "Amy, Raye, it's good to see you guys!" After they released him, the girl with blonde hair with a large red bow tied into it came up hugged him, "Dan, we missed you so much!" "It's good to see you, too, Mina!" He turned to the blonde with her hair in long pigtails, "SereNUGH!" Serena proceeded to completely wrap her arms around his midsection after a near full-speed tackle, "Dan! It's sooooo awesome to see you!"

Dan spoke quickly with agonizing strain, "It's good to see you too, _please_ let go of me!" "Serena," Lita called out, "he's been wearing a Proton Pack for 48 hours straight, let him go!" She did as her friend asked and blushed as she backed away, "Oh, uh… Sorry!"

"That's okay," Dan's voice cracked as he took in a deep breath, "It wouldn't be a greeting from you any other way," he arched his back quickly; a sickly CRACK was heard as he did. He relaxed soon after, "There, that's… still painful." He saw Darien start to approach with his hand extended. Dan reached out for his hand to shake, "Darien, you're still enduring her torture?"

"I think it was an American song; Love Hurts?" Dan scowled at him, "I don't see you for 7 years, and you go and give me a response like that?" "Hey," Darien put his hands up in a halting motion smirking as he did, "you started it!" "Yeah, but when it comes to Serena, it's a legitimate health-related question. I would know," he smirked as he quickly pointed to Lita. Lita saw this and playfully slapped him in the shoulder, "Ow! See?"

The main doors of the firehouse opened as the back of Ecto-1 pulled into the garage bay. After parking, both front doors and the rear hatch door opened, Roland, Kylie, and Garrett exited the car. They saw the group of people standing by Janine's desk, "Woah, there," Garrett said as he rolled down his extended ramp, "New York tour guides finally put us as a stop or something?"

Raye turned from Dan and Lita to Garrett. She almost immediately lost her temper, "What? Just because we're Japanese _doesn't_ mean we're tourists! How rude can you get?"

"Well, excuse me, Princess," Garrett approached her, "we're not exactly the Sizzler; you ain't gonna get a group discount, especially with that attitude." Dan and Lita very slowly turned to look at each other as the two of them argued, "For your information," Raye fired back, "We're here to help _you_, Hot Wheels!"

"Is that right, Firecracker?" Garrett was looking into her violet-colored eyes as they squared off. "Yeah, that's right!" Raye stared right back into his steely blue eyes. The women in the group were looking at each other confused as their friend attacked the Ghostbuster verbally. Kylie had a look of disturbed surprised as she muttered to herself, "What the hell…?"

Dan and Lita got between them and forced them to back away as Dan spoke up, "Whoa, wait a fucking minute! You two haven't been introduced, and you're already bitching like an old married couple! The fuck is wrong with you?"

"Hey, what's with all the noise down here, man?!" Everyone looked to the staircase and saw Eduardo and Egon walking from the stairs. Egon stopped as he recognised the group of people before Janine's desk. "Dr. Spengler!" Amy came forward and hugged him, him returning it in kind, "Amy, it's good to see you arrived safely."

Janine had finally stood from her desk, "Okay, would someone explain what's going on here? Egon, Dan, who are these women?"

"I got it Egon," Dan started as he began introducing the Ghostbusters side of the group, "Guys, this is Janine Melnitz; our secretary and office manager. The sleepy-eyed fellow by the stairs is Eduardo Rivera, one of our field operatives." Eduardo half waved as he yawned. "The large black fellow behind ya is Roland Jackson, our resident mechanic and engineer." Roland waved as he responded, "Nice to meet all of you." "The relatively confused goth lady over here is Kylie Griffin, our team occultist." "Thanks for the warm introduction, Shannon," Kylie said with venom, "I appreciate that." "I do what I can. Finally, the loudmouth in the wheelchair is Garrett Miller, our chief pain-in-the-ass."

Garrett's brow fluttered in anger, "Hey!"

"Don't, Miller," Dan pointed right at him, "You opened your mouth before I said a goddamn thing. This is all on you, buddy." "I… B-uh…" Garrett tried to say something in his defense, but he realized Dan was right. He started rolling toward the elevator as he stated, "I'm heading upstairs. I gotta blow up some zombies before I lose my friggin mind."

Raye scoffed as she walked beside Dan, "What's _his_ problem?"

"The same problems that plague you, Raye; a short temper and a hard head." She looked to him with her mouth open as he started introductions, "Ghostbusters, meet Lita's friends…" he looked to Egon, "...and ours." He put an arm around Raye, "This speechless girl is Raye Hino." He pointed in Egon and Amy's direction, "Over here is Amy Mizuno," he pointed to Mina, "Mina Aino; a very enthusiastic young lady that has the same tendencies as our founder Dr. Raymond Stantz, in certain regards…" Mina immediately cut him off, "What does that mean?" Dan had a bit of a subdued smirk on his face, "Let's just say, it means you have a bit of a… _possessive…_ personality." Mina caught the hint and facepalmed hard. Dan then pointed to Serena and Darien, "The happy couple here is Serena Tsukino and Darien Chiba." The two of them waved to everyone.

Serena looked around the found one of the fire poles leading upstairs, "Hey, is it possible I can try one of the fire poles?" Lita started chuckling, "Yep, that's definitely Serena. She never changes."

Outside the firehouse sat a stack of luggage. Under the suitcases and bags sat an animal carrier. It shuffled a bit as voices could actually be heard, "Artemis, get off my paw!" "As soon as you get your _tail _outta my _face,_ Luna!" Inside the carrier, two cats with crescent moon symbols on their heads were cramped inside. The two of them were eyeballing each other as they were scrambling to get some space inside the cage, "How many times have I told you to stay on your side of the cage?" the black cat spoke aloud. The white cat groaned back, "I'm trying to, but you keep changing what side of the cage is yours!"

"I most _certainly _do _not!"_

"That's what you said when we were flying over Hawaii! Then when we were over the Rockies, you changed it again!"

"Artemis, I've been stuck in this carrier with you for 2 days and 6,500 miles. If I have to listen to one more thing out of _your mouth_…" The doors to the firehouse opened as Dan and Darien walked out. They heard Dan talking, "Yeah, getting this stuff inside would be smart. This isn't exactly a stellar neighborhood." The two cats scrambled over each other to look outside the carrier door and see Dan walking toward them. Luna and Artemis's faces lit up as they saw him, "Dan!"

Dan looked to the bottom of the pile and saw the two of them in the cage, "Well, well," the Ghostbuster chuckled as he knelt down to the cats, "Luna, Artemis, you two look like the cats in the proverbial sardine can."

"Look, its been a rough trip," Artemis was not thrilled, "Could you cut the Dan Aykroyd routine?"

"We're about to kill each other, here," Luna was the same. She was trying to remain calm, "Could you _please_ get us out of here?"

Dan smirked as he began undoing the latch on the carrier, "Alright, alright, don't get your fur in a knot." The door opened as he backed away. Both cats came out and stretched, "Good lord, that was horrible," Artemis kept stretching as he yawned. Luna sat down as she looked up to him and Darien, "As much as I like Artemis's company, there's a point where personal space becomes a valuable commodity."

Artemis walked beside her and sat down, "That's cute. You were the one redrawing the boundary lines every couple of miles." "Guys," Dan started grabbing some of the luggage, "I just had to break up one argument; give it a rest."

"Don't tell me Raye and Serena started as soon as they saw each other." Dan looked to Luna slinging one of the girls' bags over his shoulder, "Actually, it was Raye and one of my guys, Garrett." "Yeah, actually," Darien broke in as he grabbed some luggage himself, "As soon as he came out of the Ecto-1, he made a comment, and she immediately started ripping into him."

"That's not the funniest part: Without so much as a beat, Garrett returned fire," Dan had a look of bemusement on his face as he recalled it, "It was the strangest goddamn thing I've ever seen. They were going at it like they've been doing it for years. I swear, like cesium and water those two." Dan started towards the main doors, Darien behind him. He stopped and looked to the cat guardians, "Oh, if you guys wanna come in and talk, I hate to do this to ya, but you'll have to take the fire escape. I'll leave the second floor window to the bunk room open for ya."

Both cats looked to each other then to Dan, them speaking in unison, "Reason?"

"We have four Ghostbusters that aren't initiated in the ways of the Negaverse or the Sailor Scouts, and two of them have itchy trigger fingers. Might be a good idea that if you need to talk to Egon, in every other way, you make yourselves scarce. Oh, and watch out for a flying green goop sack by the name of Slimer. You think being trapped in a cat carrier for a cross country flight is bad, try getting doused in ectoplasmic residue that smells like stale potato chips and dirty feet." With that, Dan finally opened the door, allowing Darien in first with Dan following after.

Luna sat confused as she looked to Artemis, "What's, 'Ectoplasmic residue'?" He turned to her, "It can't be too good if it smells like dirty feet."


	5. Tacks of Brass

Chapter 5: Tacks of Brass

Friday June 27th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

2:22 PM

The door to the basement opened as Roland and Lita lead Raye and Serena inside, "Under normal circumstances, Egon makes no exceptions to have anyone in the containment area of the firehouse, but seeing he trusts you as much he does…" Roland closed the door behind him as Lita lead the group down the stairs. Only two of the girls were with them; Amy was with Egon in his lab, and Darien and Mina were helping Dan with the luggage inside.

Due To the living situation, Serena and Darien offered to help Mina with sharing their hotel, and Amy and Raye would stay at the firehouse due to their proximity to the situation. With Egon sleeping on a cot in his lab, it still left two of the original Ghostbusters' beds open for use.

Serena stopped on the stairs, Raye shortly after doing the same, "Holy cow!" she pointed to the large red device in the room, "What _is_ that?"

Lita looked back to her friend, "That's the Ecto-Containment Unit, Serena. Everything the Ghostbusters caught is in there." Serena ran downstairs and walked to the device, "Why is this thing so _huge?_"

"Our old Containment Unit was too small," Roland reached the bottom of the stairs and joined her, "After it was shut off and it exploded, Egon built it not only bigger, but designed it so it can be expanded. Me and Dan are planning an expansion for it in a few months." She approached the main disposal hatch for the traps and got close to it, "How does it work?" She went to touch the disposal lever.

Roland grabbed her hand by the wrist, "Don't. _Touch._ **The unit!" **Serena looked to Roland and saw a stern look on his face. She started to well up with tears, "I'm sorry!" "Good going, Meatballhead," Raye called out, "Why not set the building on fire while you're at it?"

"Hey!" the black Ghostbuster looked back at Raye, "Cut it out. No harm, so foul," he turned back to Serena, "Look," Roland spoke more softly seeing her start to cry, "I know you're curious, but understand this is a very dangerous device. One mess-up and the city is _gone_. I'm not mad; I'm not going to berate you; I just want you to understand. Okay?" Serena nodded. Roland very gently released her arm and allowed her to back up. Roland sighed as he saw the girl look a bit unsure, "How about we go back upstairs for now. We don't have any traps to empty right now."

As they headed back upstairs, Raye lagged behind as Roland came up the rear. She looked to him, "You know, Serena is a real klutz. It might be a better idea you keep her away from anything dangerous."

"You don't have little brothers or sisters, do you?" Raye was a bit confused at the question, "With a girl like that, you need to yell at her for her to learn." Roland didn't like that response, "I don't believe in yelling at people. If you're firm, but calm, you get a better response. She didn't know. Insulting her is not the answer."

"You don't know her like I do."

"I don't have to." Raye cocked an eyebrow as he walked past her on the stairs. She shook her head and followed after.

In Egon's lab, Dan and Amy spoke with Egon of the situation, "So the spikes I read with my computer read the same general energy pattern given by Negaverse creatures. That's how I discovered the recorder was from the Negaverse." Egon had the computer in his hand as he was playing back the information for him to read, "It appears you captured a very good point-of-reference were we can use our PKE meters to find the artifact. Now seeing the algorithm, we can now properly hone in on the recorder's exact frequency rather the energy signature it was exposed to."

Off to the other side of the lab Dan was standing by a set of hydrogen tanks locking the yellow and orange Proton Canisters into a docking station. Hoses from the canisters were routed into the docking station. Dan locked an empty canister down as the sound of hissing was heard from the device, gas filling the canister. After a light changed from red to green, he unlocked the canister and placed it on a tray. He repeated the procedure as he spoke, "We still have one problem, Spengs; even with the exposure data, we still can't find the damn book that was stolen, or the First Stanza that was already used. We've been digging for a week."

"Dan, I know you're frustrated," Egon handed the computer back to Amy as he stood up, "You've been running around with no sleep and I'm worried."

"We all are," Dan turned to Amy as she spoke, "Lita's been telling me what has been going on as of late. It seems to me you guys need more help." "We have enough field ops, Amy," Dan turned to the docking station and pulled another canister off, "we can handle the field work."

"It's not the field work we need help with, Dan." After locking another canister down, Dan looked back to Egon, "The other Scouts and Darien want to volunteer their time in the crisis. They're experts in the Negaverse. They'll get whatever information we need, we just supply the force."

"We have two problems with that Egon. Number one: The team didn't exactly take to Lita too well when she joined the team, so imagine if all of her friends get involved. Number two: There's something else going on here, man." "What do you mean?" "What I mean is, why haven't we found who's responsible yet? Whoever has this recorder, they clearly have no idea what they're screwing with, but at the same time, they're keeping themselves pretty well covered. Above all else, how the hell are we gonna tell the others? I mean, it makes no damn sense these things are linked to Norse mythological objects when the recorder itself is from the Negaverse. It makes no sense!"

"True," Egon went back to his bookshelf and pulled a box. He opened it and pulled out a very old and yellowed piece of paper. The sheet had unusual markings on it, "This was sent to Cindy - Jeremy's girlfriend - right before we went to confront him at the Karsnick building. This piece of paper caused my PKE meter to overload and explode. Whatever this paper was exposed to…" There was a beeping emanating from somewhere in the room. Dan and Egon looked around until their eyes rested on Amy's computer.

Amy looked down and found that her computer was in fact beeping. She opened it and brought it to the piece of paper, "You said that this Jeremy person sent this out?" Egon nodded. "Dr. Spengler, this confirms it." "It's also written in a pre-icelandic script. Only three people can translate…" "The computer also confirms… It's the Negaversal written language. Dr. Spengler, this was deliberately left on Earth."

"By who?" Dan was lost, "Not by Beryl. The Generals." Amy slowly closed the computer. She put the corner of the computer to her chin as she began to pace the room. She walked past Dan and to the canister dock. She turned as an idea came to her, "It might have been the Negaforce itself."

"Woah, wait a minute," Dan's eyes went wide, "I thought you and the others stopped the Negaforce. If that's the case, this thing shouldn't even be able to manifest!"

"The power itself…" Amy closed her eyes, "The energy involved couldn't truly be destroyed. I had always theorized the energy would just hide away. Find another victim."

"Like Jeremy Whittington," Egon looked to Dan as he said that. "Dan, Amy, are you suggesting the very entity that gave Jeremy his power was in fact the Negaforce itself?"

"DyTyllio kept calling it the Dark Entity," Dan walked to the window and looked to the sky, "Egon, you were there. What did this entity look like?" "I have a sketch," Egon went back to his bookshelf and grabbed a copy of the Spengler Spirit Guide, "I had it entered into my guide," he flipped pages until he found it. He turned the book toward Amy and she looked at the picture, "Oh my goodness, it looks almost exactly like it!"

Dan grabbed Amy by the shoulders, "Amy, when did Beryl start sending Generals to Tokyo?" There was an intensity in his green eyes. It was actively frightening her. Egon saw how uncomfortable she was becoming, "Daniel, why are you asking?" "Because Egon," still holding onto Amy Dan looked to Egon, "I think what Jeremy did woke Beryl up." "1994." Dan looked to Amy. Amy looked him in the eye and repeated it, "Beryl started sending people in 1994." "Shit," he released her and looked to the senior Ghostbuster in the room, "Egon?"

"Eight years. Either biding time, or gaining strength," Egon closed the book and placed it on the workbench as he thought about it, "The Negaforce may have created the recorder as a means of bypass on any spell or charm casted onto it. It was either a way to lure people into its wake, a means of breaking its prison, or both. It must have known once it took control of Beryl as a conduit, it could also be used to awaken it. Knowing going into a fight with the Moon Kingdom and what the power of the Silver Imperial Crystal held, it left a back door open."

"Wait a moment," Amy interrupted them, "there was a valuable vector Dan has brought up. Why are they linked to Norse legends?" There was a silence. Everyone looked to each other as they waited for the other to respond. Dan closed is eyes and sighed…

There was a flash before his eyes.

"The Arctic!" Amy looked to Dan surprised, "That's where the Earth Kingdom used to stand before Beryl destroyed it and it became the Negaverse's base. Maybe they made the recorder up there and it went off somewhere else? There's no permanent landmass up there!"

Amy was still surprised, "How are you aware of the Earth Kingdom?"

"I just had a flash in my mind about it. It was like I was there before. I think it was my previous life."

"What Dan said about the landmass in the arctic circle is correct," Egon sat down to his computer and pulled up a geomap program on his computer, "It might be possible the closest landmass even close to said location would be here," the program showed a map pointing far north of the Baltic region to a small mass of islands, "Svalbard. Of course. Next to Greenland, Svalbard would be the most likely direct route the Norsemen would have taken exploring the region in the 12th century. It's possible the recorder could have made its way there and from there, the Norseman could have carried it back believing it was a relic handed to them by Odin."

"Or," Dan scratched the side of his head, "The Negaforce decided to drop it there on purpose before wiping out the Earth Kingdom." Egon looked back to his field operative and found a profound look on his face as he spoke again, "I donno, Egon, I gotta bad feeling here."

Stepping out of the Lab, Dan and Amy walked to the bunk room slowly, "Dan, I need to know." "What's on your mind?" "Were you always so well versed on the Arctic Circle?"

He shook his head, "I'm radiophobic. When I was a kid, my grandfather died of cancer. He was a nuclear worker. As part of my obsession, I've learned a lot about the nuclear technologies the US developed over time. The Army created a reactor for the purpose of powering radar stations in the arctic. As close as they could to the circle, they laid a station in Thule, Greenland. That's how I learned there's nothing at the true pole; at least, nothing that's not obscured by the same magical field that prevented NASA from seeing the Moon Kingdom remains."

"What do you remember of the Earth Kingdom?" Dan stopped. Amy took notice and followed suit as Dan thought about it. After a moment he shook his head and looked to her, "Not much. It's still fuzzy."

"You do realize neither myself nor the other Scouts have been there." Dan eyebrows fluttered, "What?" "Before the Negaverse attacked - for some time even - people in the Earth Kingdom court were slowly being corrupt. Those from Earth were considered an enemy of the Moon Kingdom. Prince Darien had asked Queen Serenity for help; that was when the Negaverse attacked."

"So what you're saying is because I remember the Earth Kingdom…"

"No!" Amy realized what she was saying, "No, we don't believe you're an enemy. For whatever reason, you being there had to be with good intentions." Dan didn't like that at all. Now he felt this horrible pit in his stomach that was begging for more information. He shook his head, "Well, you know what they say about the road to Hell, right?" "It might have something to do with the fact Darien unlocked your mind." "That has crossed my mind," he opened the bunk room door and walked in.

Amy followed as he paced his way to the window and looked out of it, "I kept wondering if more would be explained if I found the other Solar Knights. I haven't even got a blip on 'em. I'm beginning to think that I shouldn't even try anymore," Amy approached him and put a hand on his shoulder as he continued, "I mean, I can't even lead a team of Ghostbusters. Who in their right mind would want me as a leader of a bunch of elemental-powered knights? I can't even get anyone to take out the trash in this place."

"Dan, you're too hard on yourself!" Amy said softly, "I believe in you." "Christ, Amy!" Dan rolled his eyes, turned his back from the window, and paced toward the door before stopping at the foot of his bunk, "Between you, Lita, and Egon. I mean, everyone else is hard on me, ain't I allowed to take a crack at myself every once in a while?"

"That's not a very nice thing to say about yourself."

"It may not be nice, but it is accurate. No one listens to me in the field. Maybe I don't belong here." Amy heard that and felt her heart sink. It reminded her of right before the Sailor Scouts defeated Malachite and how Sailor Moon felt betrayed by Sailor Mars because she had the Crescent Moon Wand in her possession. Amy saw the situation as Dan not believing the team trusts him. The Scouts knew what kind of man Dan was, but it was hard to convince this current team of Ghostbusters of the same.

Still, "If you think you don't, you'd be letting a good amount of people down. The Scouts believe in you; all of us do. I know things look difficult, but you have to remember those who _do_ trust you. Don't forget Lita," Dan turned to her as she walked toward him, "Dr. Spengler… Egon… He told me how you started to doubt yourself, and about how badly you missed Lita. He's told me you've improved over the last week and a half and had become more confident. The same with Lita."

Dan blinked, "What do you mean the same with Lita?"

"You know about what happened, don't you?"

He shook his head, "I know about her grandparents." "You really don't know?" Again, he shook his head. "Dan, Lita's in severe debt." Dan's mouth hung open "What?!" She continued, "When her grandparents died, she lost her apartment and all of her possessions. All the money she had saved for culinary school was spent on her grandfather's cancer treatment. Her grandparents' house, all of her inheritance… gone for debts."

Dan stumbled back onto the foot of his bunk as a look of stunned shock came over his face. Amy knelt down before him, "Outside of the Scouts, you're the only light she has in her life now. When I told her Egon had asked for her to come here and that you were team leader, I never saw that girl move so fast!" She let out a giggle remembering what had happened that night, but her face soon lost its smile as she looked away, "She was so miserable when I saw her last. I had learned she tried to get a loan for a bakery she wanted to open. She was denied. The bank would only put forth the money if she gave a down payment of $10,000."

Dan was flabergasted. His mouth hung open as his eyes aimlessly looked the room trying to grasp what he had just heard, "Wha… Why didn't she tell me? My God, does she not trust me, too?"

She gripped his hand, "No! The last we heard from you, you were worried you were about to lose your job! She didn't want you to worry about her, too."

He looked her in her blue eyes, "Amy, both you and her should have known that was gonna happen no matter what. I worried about her ever since I left. I worried worse when she never responded to my letters. When I never got another letter back from her, I felt disconnected. I was resigned to the idea she was out of my life, but I still worried about her. When I saw her standing in the garage bay by the Ecto-1, I was praying I was awake. When the Draugr wounded her and she was dying in my arms…" Dan's eyes closed as Amy felt his hand tighten, "...I prayed I wasn't. The first second I don't worry, that's when something bad happens."

"Have you actually spent any time with her?" Dan opened his eyes and looked to Amy again. He averted his eyes as he shook his head, "No. Things went sideways soon after we got the call for the Draugr. After it all, I think we only spent maybe a few hours together. Now that I think about it, I don't think we ever went on an actual date since we knew each other. The night Jedite appeared, I don't even know if I could count that as a date."

Outside of the bunk room, Amy quietly closed the door behind her. As she did, Roland was walking up the stairs with Lita, Serena, and Raye. The girls saw her as Lita called out, "Hey, Ames, have you seen Darien and Mina anywhere?" Amy turned and put his finger to her lips then spoke in a quiet voice, "Dan's taking a nap. He looked really worn out."

"Yeah," Roland started in a more hushed tone, "we've all been running on a few hours of sleep. Its been chaos out there."

"To answer your question, Darien and Mina went to the hotel to check in and take the luggage there. Roland, is it?" Roland nodded in acknowledgment, "Can I talk to you for a moment?" "Uh… Sure," He turned to Lita, "Show Serena and Raye Egon's lab." Lita nodded then turned to her friends, "Okay, guys, you're about to go where more explosive things than you two exist, so please, be nice…" the three of them entered the lab and the door shut leaving the two of them in the hallway. Roland initiated, "What can I help you with?"

"Roland, I believe you're the only one that trusts Dan. Is that true?"

"Dan tell you that?"

"No. Honestly, I don't know why, but you seem like the only one of the new crew to not have friction with him. Is it possible you can do something for him?"

Roland smiled, "For Dan? Anything. What ya need?"


	6. Acquaintance

Chapter 6: Acquaintance

Friday June 27th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

3:15 PM

Eduardo had finally woke up enough to get some materials together and now he was in the kitchen making a sandwich. Grabbing a drink and some chips on his plate beside the sandwich, he sat down and started eating. He took a bite of his sandwich, then looked to his watch. He groaned as he tried to speed up his eating.

A blonde head of hair tied with a red bow poked up from the floor at the spiral staircase. Mina - having returned from helping Darien check into the hotel - walked up as she took notice of the hispanic man eating his late lunch with his back to her. She walked up quietly and tapped the man on the shoulder, "Excuse me." Eduardo jumped in his seat and looked to her, yelping as he did. After taking a look at her, he put his head in his hand with his other hand holding the sandwich. He quickly looked to her and yelled, "_Dios bueno, _you scared the hell outta me!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Mina backed up and bit her lip. Eduardo took a good look at her. He cocked his head to the side, "You're Lita's friend, right?" Mina nodded as he started to relax. Eduardo breathed through his nose and exhaled, "I'm sorry about that, I thought you were Slimeball." "Slimeball?" Mina asked. "Yeah, Slimer; the flying ball of snot with a stomach like a black hole?"

Mina was a bit confused, "I'm not familiar…"

"Don't worry," he put his sandwich down on the plate as he explained, "you try to eat anything in this place, you'll get maybe one or two bites outta it before he arrives." Just as he said that, Slimer popped his head up through the table and tipped the plate's contents into his mouth in one go. Mina saw him and screamed with her eyes wide open.

Eduardo turned just in time to see the last of his lunch drop into the green ghost's mouth and start munching. Eduardo growled as he raised his fist, "SLIMER!" The ghost ducked back into the table leaving a slime puddle behind. Eduardo slammed his fist into it splattering himself in ectoplasm. After a moment of fuming, he looked back to his guest and showed his coating of residue, "You see what I mean?!" He stood up and walked to the sink to start washing the slime off as Mina stood bewildered at what just happened, "Wh-why don't you guys just trap him or something?"

"Can't do that. Slimebag is like, Egon's pet." Slimer came out from under the table and looked to the young Japanese woman. He began to approach her and held out his hand to shake. Mina started backing up in fear as he approached, "No, stay away from me! Don't…!"

Eduardo suddenly threw out his hand and grabbed Slimer by what would be the closest thing to a throat he had and snapped at him, "You so much as touch that girl, I'm going to kick the everloving crap outta you, you understand me?" Almost as suddenly as he did it, Eduardo blinked hard and gave his head a hard shake as he realized what he was doing. He immediately let Slimer go as a look of shock came over his face, "I'm sorry, Slimer, I donno what came over me! I didn't mean…" Slimer looked at Eduardo frightened and started backing away from him. What Eduardo just did scared the little ghost to the point he turned tail and cried out as he flew out of the room phasing through the floor.

"Wait Slimer, I…" it was too late. Eduardo growled out, "Great!" He facepalmed himself with the very hand that grabbed Slimer by the throat, completely covering his face with ectoplasmic residue, "Aw, come on!" He grabbed a dish towel and started wiping the slime from his face as Mina stood stiff. He turned and noticed the woman still standing there, "Hey, you okay?" She was still startled as she looked to him, "Yeah, but…" she stopped as she looked to him. The look on her face caused him to stop what he was doing, "What?" Mina shook her head, "Nothing. Nevermind!" She turned back to the staircase and started her way back down quickly.

Eduardo had no idea what in the hell just happened.

Garrett had been playing his copy of Resident Evil as he talked to himself, "First we get the Japanese amazon, now we get the school girl patrol in all its glory. I'm startin' to think Egon's losing his mind." Slimer flew right into his view and started babbling as he always did. He made an attempt to illustrate what had just happened between him and Eduardo when Garrett grunted at him, "Slimer, I'm in the middle of something, and I am seriously _not_ in the mood. Get. LOST!" Slimer yelped and flew off. Garrett looked after him still grunting until he started hearing slashing noises coming from the TV. His character was getting eaten by zombies. Before he could retaliate, his character died. He threw his controller to the floor, "Goddamnit!"

Raye had exited Egon's lab and found herself in the lounge area. She looked around and found Garrett in front of the TV with his Playstation 2 booted, but she found the Ghostbuster with his head in his hands. She could sense he was clearly upset. She quietly approached the man in the wheelchair and proceeded to talk, "Is it okay that I sit here?" Garrett looked up and saw the raven-haired girl standing beside the green chair next to the couch that surrounded the TV.

Even after their initial meeting, Garrett looked into the woman's violet-colored eyes and saw she had calmed down a great deal. For a moment he was rather entranced by her eyes. There was a warmth and welcoming sense coming from her. It changed his very deposition he had not more than a moment ago, making him feel a twinge of guilt for those thoughts. This feeling; this warm, comforting feeling. It felt almost like…

Garrett shook himself out of trance and finally realized he was keeping the woman waiting, "Uh… sure. I got my own seat, after all." Raye sat down and looked at the game that was loaded, "Oh, you're playing Biohazard?" "Actually," he bent down and grabbed his controller, "It's Resident Evil. Felt like I needed to shoot something that would actually die. Usually I get joy from this in the field, but as of late…"

"Yeah," she watched him restart his game, "Egon told us these things you were fighting weren't taking it lying down. Look, I'm sorry about what happened downstairs," Garrett stopped his game and looked to the woman beside him as she continued, "We just got done traveling over an ocean and we had to hop so many flights because of the creatures…"

"Hey, it's okay," Garrett put his controller in his lap as he turned his chair to her, "I understand that. Me and the others had our trip to Atlantic City delayed because of a flying monstrocity, it's enough to make you strangle your travel agent." Raye gave a slight chuckle as she looked at the man before her. She put out her hand, "Raye Hino." When Garrett is usually in this situation with a woman he would be as suave as possible adding as many of his abilities and qualities in his title, but something had told him this time to take the subtle approach; to be courgle. He took her hand gently, "Garrett Miller. It's very nice to meet you, Raye."

After their introductions, Kylie walked in with Darien in tow, "Hey, Garrett? Have you seen this guy's better half anywhere?" Raye looked behind and saw Darien. She blew a raspberry, "Serena? Darien's better half? More like the other way around." "You guys haven't seen each other in nearly a month," Darien retorted, "couldn't you two put it on ice for a little while longer?" Kylie raised an eyebrow, "A month?"

"We were on vacation before we got the call from Amy," Darien rubbed the back of his neck as he explained, "She told us you guys needed help; after what Dr. Venkman and the others did for us, me and Serena came directly from Italy. We met at JFK."

Just then Eduardo came down the spiral staircase and into the lounge, "Hey, have you guys seen that one blonde-haired girl run through here? Mina, I think was her name?"

"Yeah, I did," Garrett turned to him, "What'd you do, Eddie? Try to play Don Whan again? She tore through here like the building was collapsing."

"It was Slimer."

"Slimer?" asked Darien. Kylie shook her head then looked back and forth between them, "Geez, did I just hear an _actual_ echo?" Raye stood and looked at the two of them, "You're not the only one!" Eduardo and Darien looked at each other, then said in unison, "What?" Kylie raised both her eyebrows, "Okay, that's weird; you too sound almost identical."

"Me? Sound like _him_?" Eduardo pointed at Darien, "You're _loco_!"

"Granted," Garrett had a gleeful look on his face, "he doesn't sound like a Spanish Conquistador like you do, but you _have_ to admit…" "Come on, everyone," Darien broke into the conversation, "this is no way to treat your teammates."

"What are you talking about?" Kylie answered, "This is everyday banter for us." "Yeah," Eduardo added, putting his hands on his hips, "especially when Kylie remembers the rest of us don't speak Egonese." Kylie gave him a cold look and grunted. Eduardo ignored her, "Look, I'll talk to that girl later. Where's Dan and Lita? Our shift's startin' soon."

Raye pointed to Egon's Lab, "Lita and Serena are in there, and Dan's resting in your sleeping quarters."

Garrett put down his controller and powered down the console, "That means we're due for artifact search duty. Where's Roland?"

In Venkman's old office, Amy and Roland were mapping out the day team's search route. The notes Dan left behind allowed the two of them to plot the next areas to search, "Almost all of Manhattan has been searched," Amy shuffled from the Manhattan map to the map of Queens, "It seems the night team has been over a large area already. What areas haven't been checked?"

"Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island still need to be gone over," Roland had a cup of coffee in his hand making a valiant attempt to stay awake, "Queens is about halfway finished. Dan and Eduardo have been taking Manhattan during daytime shift hours while we're dealing with the Man-Bat creatures," he brought the cup to his lips, "I do _not _envy that man."

As Roland had his coffee, Amy looked back to the maps. She looked over the map for Staten Island. She found a mark on the map that looked… isolated, "Roland, what is this point on the Staten Island map?" Roland put down his cup and took the map from her. He looked it over, "Oh, we had a call there this morning. Cement mill. Foreman for the facility was attacked. Dan must of marked it."

"I notice there's a great deal of activity around Central Park and going towards Queens. Is that the reason you're checking those areas first?" "Yeah. Egon believes whoever has the recorder is sending those things there because the recorder is there." Amy put the map for Manhattan back down, a look of worry on her face, "But, don't you find it a bit unusual?"

Roland lowered his map of Queens, "Why?"

"Roland, if these attacks were as random as it should be, why are there so few in Staten Island?"

Roland raised an eyebrow. Something was screaming at him to hear the woman before him out, "Okay, what's on your mind?" "You see the attacks taking place on Manhattan and Queens islands, but the amount of attacks in the Bronx and Brooklyn are almost one-third of that," she pulled out the maps of both boroughs and pointed to the call markers on the maps, "On top of that, there's only one attack in Staten Island. Is it possible they're originating from that island?"

"That may very well be, but we're checking Manhattan because of the amount of Museums there are, and we're checking Queens because the airport houses the Customs and Border protection warehouse. We're not just looking for what was stolen, but for anything else related to the artifact we're trying to find. We have a lot of ground to cover…" he looked into the woman's eyes. They were crying out to him to consider what she has said. Roland couldn't help but add after a sigh, "...But we'll check Staten once we handle the area around the airport," he gripped the bridge of his nose, "I hope Dan doesn't get mad at me for changing the search parameters."

"I know Dan very well; he'll trust your judgement. If he does have an issue, just say I suggested it." Roland looked up to her and saw the blue-haired girl smiling. All Roland could do was smirk back.

"Hey, Rolmeister," Roland looked toward the elevator to see Garrett rolling out of it, "Time to clock in for overtime!" Garrett disappeared past the filing cabinets toward Ecto-1. He heard streaking sounds as he stood and turned toward the office boundaries to see everyone else sliding down fire poles.

Dan dismounted the pole quickly to allow Lita to reach the bottom. Eduardo was right behind her. Dan rolled his eyes and blinked hard as he tried to wake up. He turned and walked past his team and to Janine's desk, "Alright, what's the damage report?"

Janine shuffled through her worksheets and pulled up a packet of paper, "We have a dozen reports coming from the Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn."

Dan had an annoyed look on his face as he grabbed the packet from Janine, responding in irritation, "Bushwick? _Again?_" He turned his back to the woman as he paced to the lockers and back, "Goddamnit! We got done with that place last night!" "The 67th precinct also called to report multiple zombie-like manifestations milling around the Flatbush neighborhood, as well."

"Zombies? _In daylight?_" Dan shook his head as he started looking through the packet, "Fuck _me!_"

"Then we have Flushing Meadows…"

"_Ooooooooh no!_" Dan dropped the packet to the floor as he waved his hands in front of him, "If I have to go back to Flushing Meadows, I'm wrapping my lips around the barrel of my fucking Proton Gun! I'm **not** going back to help those people; they can go fuck themselves!" Janine was in total shock at the profanity coming from Dan. He normally cursed like a sailor, sure, but at this point, a sailor could blush.

As proof, Lita was blushing.

Dan turned to the back of the Ecto-1 and placed his hands against the door and he groaned in agony and rage. Lita came up to him to console him as Eduardo, Kylie, and Roland were staring at him. Eduardo commented, "Man, I think the sleep deprivation finally got to him." Garrett had an eyebrow raised, "He had a nap; he should be fine."

"Garrett, Dan's only had four hours of sleep in the last three days," Roland explained, "That's not enough!" "I agree." Egon was standing on the mid-landing of the stairs as he came down to see what the commotion was. The tired and haggard Ghostbusters all looked to him as he stood there and watched, "I have come to a conclusion. Considering the nature of the situation, I am making it mandatory that all of you have the next two days off."

Kylie was surprised, "Egon, what about all those creatures? We can't just…" "Yes you can," Egon said cutting her off, "The Proton Packs as they stand are not effective, and we still have some time before whoever is involved figures out how to break the binding on that Second Stanza. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing we can do for the moment. Besides, I've run calculations on the PKE levels in the city and they're dropping. If we're to be ready, we'll need to be rested."

Everyone was confused by the sudden outburst Dan had performed, and the sudden charge by Egon to cancel Ghostbusting operations. Roland looked to everyone as he stood by, "I… guess I can use the time to repair packs." Kylie also responded, "I can look up some information on…"

"I said you have the next two days off," Egon said in a stern voice, him reaching the bottom of the stairs, "that means anything to do with this operation is on hold until Monday. All of you are going to be hazards in the field if you don't make any attempt to get sleep and recover. You don't have to go home right now, but I expect you all to go home by 10 o'clock tonight. This is for your own health," he turned to Janine, "Until further notice we're no longer accepting calls until Monday at 8 AM."

Janine shook her head, "Egon, what brought this on?"

A few minutes earlier…

Serena was in Egon's lab looking over all of the peatrie dishes of strange material on a shelf, "Ewww, what is this stuff?" Egon walked from behind as he observed the young woman, "Various samples of ectoplasmic residue, demonic tissue samples, and mutant strains of exotic mold spores of extradimensional origin."

Serena stuck out her tounge in disgust, "Ick, I'd hate to eat _your_ cooking."

"Fascinating. Janine says the same thing."

"Come on, Serena," Lita gave a small laugh, "It's a lab. This is how Egon finds out all the stuff he needs to make stuff work. It's not a kitchen." "I know that," the woman looked back, her pigtails whipping across the air as she did, "But it's kinda hard to _not_ think that since there's a refrigerator in here." When she turned back to the shelf, there was a green object suddenly flying at her from the wall behind. Before she could react, Slimer collided with her knocking her to the floor. Acting as though nothing happened, Slimer flew up to Egon and started babbling at him about what happened between him and Eduardo.

Egon interrupted him, "Slimer, do you know what you just did?" "_Huh?"_ Slimer turned and found Lita picking Serena off the floor, her dripping with ectoplasm. Slimer's eyes widened, then he turned back to Egon, "_I'm sorry."_ Serena got to her feet. She was soaked with slime. She started to whine as she saw and felt the material on her, "Ew, ew, ew, ew, this is _soooo groooss!_ What hit me?" That was when Slimer floated up her, his index fingers touching and his eyes averted to the floor.

Serena backed into Lita and stood stiff as the little ghost approached, "Wha… wha… What is this… _thing_?" "It's okay, Serena," Lita assured her, "This is Slimer. He's friendly." Slimer looked up and very skittishly waved to her, "_Hello. I'm sorry."_ Egon came from the lab sink with a towel to hand to Serena, "I have to apologize, I should have warned you about Slimer. I forgot he wasn't with us when we met you originally."

Serena took the towel and quickly wiped the slime from her face. It felt like cold, nasty-smelling shampoo, "What is this… stuff?"

"I think that was the Ectoplasmic residue Dan told me about," She removed the towel from her face as she saw Darien, Kylie, and Eduardo walk into the room. Eduardo was annoyed, "He got you too, huh?" He turned to Slimer, "Yeah, good goin', Ectospasm. That's guest number two for you today." Slimer gulped hard and disappeared through the floor. Shaking his head, the latino looked to Lita, "Come on, it's time for our shift. We need you to wake up loverboy."

Lita nodded as her and the other two Ghostbusters left the room leaving Serena, Darien, and Egon in the lab alone. Egon sat back at his bench as he rubbed his eyes behind his glasses, "Dan actually went to sleep? That's not going to go well."

"Egon," he removed his hands from his eyes and looked to the female guest in his lab, "why does everyone look so worn out? Has it been that bad?"

"We do actually have two teams," Egon went on to explain, "Dan established a night shift, but that immediately became derailed when these attacks started happening. On top of that, of the information we have on hand, we are also trying to find a set of artifacts associated with a musical instrument that is linked to the attacks. On daytime hours, the night shift has been taking care of artifact retrieval while the day team handles the attacks. When it comes to night shift hours, the opposite happens. It's been a complete mess for the last three days."

"Dan looks like he did when he was in the tower," Egon looked to Serena as she sat down beside him, Darien walking up behind her, "I remember Raye telling me toward the end of the night, Dan was starting to lose his mind. She said he said he only had a few hours sleep when he was in Tokyo. Egon," Egon looked her in her saffire eyes as she stated, "they need to be given a break."

"I agree," everyone turned to the door of the lab to see Amy standing there. She looked a bit flushed; as though she just ran back up the stairs.


	7. Orders

Chapter 7: Orders

In the garage, everyone was crowded around Egon confused. Janine was standing in awe as she looked to the physicist before her as he answered her question, "It's a simple matter of the wellbeing of the team. Additional research needs to be performed in order to find a way to nullify these Man-Bat creatures in the city. Simply sending them out there is going to get them hurt. I am of the belief we need to recoup and strategize after a few days. I wouldn't normally do something like this, but it needs to be done."

Everyone erupted in a string of questions as he concluded. Egon put up his hand to signal he wanted everyone to stop talking, "I don't like taking this kind of action, either, but you all have your orders," he pointed at Dan and Lita, "all except you two. I want to see both of you in my lab. Alone." He turned and walked back up the stairs. Dan was worried, "Did we do something wrong?" Egon stopped and turned, "Yes. A rather egregious error on both your parts, it seems," he turned and continued up, "I'll discuss it with you upstairs."

Egon ascended the stairs again walking out of sight. Everyone in a Ghostbuster uniform all stared at the two. Garrett took a small amount of glee in the situation as he spoke in a sing-song voice, "OooooOOoooo, someone's in _trouble_!"

The dark eyes of Dan Shannon turned their attention to the wheelchair-bound man as he grinded his teeth, "How would you like to spend the rest of your life as a _quardro_palegic, smartass?" Under normal circumstances, Garrett paid no nevermind to Dan's threats, but this time he felt a sense of menace about the over-tired man before him. He was truly poking the bear looking into his tired eyes. Almost without thinking about it, Garrett started backing his chair up and away from the man as the death-glare burned holes into his soul.

"Dan," Lita came up and gripped his hand as she spoke softly, "Dan, don't worry about him. Come on, let's just go see what Egon wants to talk about, okay?"

The door of the Lab closed as both Dan and Lita stood before Egon. The two of them looked toward the man quietly awaiting his words. Egon took his cleaning cloth from his pocket and removed his glasses from his face. As he cleaned his glasses he looked toward the two, "I suppose you're wondering why the two of you are in trouble."

"Look, if it's about Flushing Meadows…" Dan started, but was soon cut off by Egon, "No. Even in the old days, me and the others had issues with the people in Flushing Meadows. They act like perpetual children. No, the reason has to do with you two's conduct."

"Well," Lita and Dan looked to each other as she began asking, "what did we do?" "It's more of what you two didn't do," Dan was perplexed at that response, but he didn't speak hoping Egon would explain, "Dan, I asked Amy to relay the message to Lita that she was invited to New York. I had done so because Janine told me what you had told her." Dan sighed, "I figured as much."

"Lita, ever since you arrived, you had placed yourself in danger unjustly which resulted in Dan's near demise, let alone your own. After he recovered, you had decided to join the team. I allowed this under the understanding the two of you would be together, but the same problems seem to still be stemming from one inevitable problem: you two are not spending time together. You're treating each other like colleagues, and not as a couple."

Dan had a clear look on his face of non-understanding. It wasn't because the words didn't make sense, but because of who was saying the words. Lita looked back and forth between both him and Egon as she tried to gauge Dan's reaction, "Egon, are you saying…" "Yes. You two are going to take these next two days off and you're going to act like normal people. I want the two of you to have a… Date… as it were."

"Goddamn you, Amy," Dan placed his head into his hand, "It's getting to a point I can't tell anyone _anything_ around here."

"Why?" Lita asked, worried it was the same thing she overheard that morning in the truck. Dan looked up and over to her as he explained, "I told her we haven't been on a date since you got here. She sorta knows about the Draugr," he turned and paced the room, "I thought we'd have time after all this shit was over."

"However this came to be," Egon placed his glasses back on his nose, "you two are going to spend time together. Those PKE readings you've been reporting back do show lowering levels. It's looking as though this might be the first break you will have for a good long while, so it's best you do so. Besides, I feel somewhat responsible for all that has happened."

"Egon, you can't blame yourself for the creatures," Dan shook his head as he spoke, "This whole thing has nothing to do with you."

"Yeah," Lita agreed, "You didn't know someone else was going to pull any of this."

"That's where both of you are wrong," Egon sat down and placed his head into his hands, "I had thought about it over the last hour, and I _do_ believe Jeremy was the one that awoke Beryl."

Lita looked to Dan, "What's he talking about?"

"About an hour or so ago, we learned of a note that was sent from Jeremy to Cindy that was soaked in the PKE signature we're currently using to find the recorder. The note Cindy received that Egon scanned was written in the Negaverse's native language. Because of the situation, I think what Egon's getting at is he should have known."

"Everything you had been through; Beryl and the Negaverse, and all of the other Negaverse originating creatures…" Egon looked to his two field operatives, "It was all our fault. It's _my _fault." Dan watched as the man put his head back into his hands. It was almost like when the Ghostbusters closed up and blamed himself for it. Dan knelt down and placed a hand on the man's shoulder, "Egon, you didn't put the recorder in Jeremy's hand; you didn't force him to play it; it's _not_ your fault. If anything, if it didn't happen, me and Lita would have never come together. Whatever is going on, you have no reason to feel guilty."

Egon looked to his senior field operator. His words were simple, but they spoke from the heart. He still remembered the night Dan awoke screaming from the nightmare that first made Dan aware of Sailor Jupiter. He remembered how much Dan was upset because he didn't believe the girl was real. Even in the days after, Dan kept trying to convince him there was something to the dream. After the airport, Dan slugged him right in the face and went to kill him when Peter, Ray, and Winston stopped him from wrapping his hands around his throat. Soon after, Winston arrived back at the embassy with Dan's truck alone.

Egon remembered it well, the night of Dan's first transformation into the Solar Knight of Jupiter. Only a few hours after Dan had punched him, Egon was now the voice of sanity when Luna and Artemis arrived to explain what Dan was and why he was getting odd readings on his PKE meter. This man before him trusted him greatly and knew that if he had known, he would have done things differently. Dan didn't blame him for a single thing. "Like you said," Dan gave a tired half-smile as he looked to his superior, "we've been through a lot together. If you screwed up, you would have heard it by now." Egon looked from his hands and looked him in the eyes.

Egon nodded as he himself returned a half-smile. He stood up and looked to the two operatives in his lab, "Okay then, you two, you'd best make an attempt to get some sleep."

"Um… Egon," Dan said, eyebrow raised, "it's 4 in the afternoon."

"At the current rate of exhaustion you and Lita are experiencing, on top of the extreme physical and mental anguish you've been enduring, I predict you'll both be out for approximately 16 hours. Go on," Egon pointed to the lab's door, "That's an order."

In the lounge area, Garrett had gone back to his game as the two of them walked out and walked by. Garrett paused his game as he called out, "What was that all about?" Dan stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at him, "It's none of your fucking business, jagoff. Mind your own fucking video game!" Lita softly called Dan out and put her arms around his arm as Garrett retorted, "Hey, cut the attitude!" "Or what, dickhead?" Dan was seething staring the man in the wheelchair down, Lita pulling on his arm to get him to stop.

Garrett dropped his controller and turned to him, "I'm not afraid of you, 'Loose Cannon'. If you think you can scare me into submission…" "I couldn't give a fuck if you were scared or not, I'll trash your ass!" Dan started taking steps toward Garrett, Garrett backing up realizing he went a bridge too far. Lita stepped between them and started pushing Dan back, "Dan, stop!" Dan looked into Lita's eyes and saw her telegraphing what she wanted him to do. Her eyes shifted from him to the direction of the bunk room. Looking over her shoulder, Dan gave Garrett one last snarl then turned his way to the sleeping quarters of the firehouse.

Lita put her head into her hands after she heard the door slam. Garrett pulled up next to her as he looked where he went, "I can only hope you're not here when he finally does it." Lita removed her head from her hands and looked at him, "When he finally does what?"

"When he goes postal."

Lita started to scowl at him, "Is that what you really think of him?" Garrett heard the tension in her voice as he looked up to her, "That man almost _sacrificed_ himself to save me, my friends, and the original Ghostbusters! He saved the world _by himself_!" She was now approaching Garrett closer as he again attempted to back away, "How _dare_ you ever think he'd go insane and hurt people! Do you have any idea what that man's _been through_ in his life?!" She wound up and smacked Garrett across his face, the force of the impact actively knocking him over out of his wheelchair. Garrett pushed himself up slightly and rubbed his face where Lita hit him. Lita went to start walking away as she stated, "You don't know him like I do."

"That may be," she stopped. She turned to look at the man on the floor as he spoke, "but can you be so sure you know him _enough_?" Lita shook her head in disgust at him and began to walk to the bunk room after Dan. Garrett called after her, "I'll say it again: Get away from him before you get hurt!"

Saturday June 28th, 2002

2:30 AM

Dan and Lita had been asleep for several hours now. Amy had turned in after the long day, Luna and Artemis crawling their way inside and onto her bunk with her. There was one person that was not in bed.

On the roof of the firehouse, Raye - dressed in her temple robes - was using a portable fire pit in the middle of the helipad. Nearby was Egon. He was wearing his Ghostbusters uniform wearing a large gray tank with two smaller green tanks to each side on his back. In his hands was a sprayer tube connected to the tanks with two large hoses. Just off to the side of the helipad was a pair of empty Ghost Traps and a Proton Pack.

Raye was stoking the fire as Egon checked over his equipment to make sure it was still operational, "It's been a few years since I've used one of the Mk. I Slime Blowers, but this should come in handy in case something happens. Are you almost ready?"

"Yeah, I'm almost set. Why don't we have one of the others up here to help you with this?"

"Dan and Lita are the only other ones that know of the Negaverse that have the proper training and at current moment, they need their rest. Not to worry, in the event of an emergency, I have a spare pack." Raye was skeptical of the comic-looking storage tanks on Egon's back, but it was explained that the slime Ray supplied Amy that went onto the sutra that depossessed her was the same in the Slime Blower tanks. She knelt down on the helipad surface and began her chant.

A half an hour had passed. Egon had his PKE meter out and was scanning for any spike in the ether, but wasn't turning up anything. Raye continued to chant and call forth the fire's guiding influence, but nothing was happening. Egon checked the PKE of the building again, "I'm beginning to suspect the residual energy that's contaminated the building is interfering with your reading capabilities."

Raye stopped chanting. She looked at the fire and saw nothing, "I don't think that's it. It was so powerful the last time I summoned it. Why isn't it working this time?" "Perhaps it's your focus," Raye turned to the Ghostbuster behind her as he stood and approached, "You've been on numerous flights between Tokyo and New York. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to attempt this." "Egon, the whole world is in trouble!" Egon sighed as he looked to the young Japanese woman before him. He carefully knelt down beside her, "I understand, Raye, but this is the reason I sent everyone home this afternoon. When I'm stuck - not sure why something isn't working - I work on something else. Even when we feel something is important, we need to relax until it comes to us. Come on," the physicist held out his hand, "I'll buy you a cup of coffee."

In the kitchen, Raye and Egon sat at the table with two Ghostbusters-branded coffee cups before them. Raye's had a tea bag in hers, but Egon had actual coffee, "I just feel like after all this time, we were done with all this Negaverse stuff, you know?" Egon looked into his cup as he heard the woman think out loud about the situation, "It's almost as though we'll be doing this forever." "I must admit, Raye, I personally do not look at that as a bad thing. Although, I understand why you would tire of it after a while."

"I donno, Egon," Raye picked up her cup with both hands, "I feel like I shot my mouth off at the wrong time. I remember actually complaining about it being so quiet. Next thing I know, I'm becoming possessed, and I had to fly across an ocean and a whole continent just because of it." She drank her tea as she looked to the table, Egon looking up to see the worry in her eyes. Ever since the new team had been created, Egon had found himself being more like a father figure than a leader despite what the team says. It was something he wasn't expecting himself to become, but nonetheless he made an attempt to do the best he could considering the company he kept these days. Now with the Sailor Scouts here, he was the only father figure these girls could know that knows of their double lives. Of all the advice and experience he could give, he was drawing a blank on the situation.

That was until Raye told him something that put the situation into perspective, "If it weren't for the fact we know about Crystal Tokyo, I would actually think it would end." Egon's eyebrows shot from behind his glasses, "Crystal Tokyo?" Raye looked up with eyes wide, realizing she said something that she shouldn't have, "Oh, no." "This Crystal Tokyo," Egon put his mug to the side and placed his hands palms down on the table, "does it have to do with the future?" Raye bit her lower lip as she looked the scientist in the eyes. It was clear the man was intelligent enough to quickly deduce what she was talking about. After she was finished mentally kicking herself for shooting her mouth off yet again, she nodded. "I'm not going to ask any further. All I can ask beyond this is can we prevent anything that might happen?"

"I don't know, we were only there for a short time dealing with something to figure out what else happened in the past." Raye was lying, of course. The ecological disaster that would freeze the Earth was most likely still going to happen, but she didn't know the reason why it happened. It might have been something the Ghostbusters could prevent, but there were only 5 field Ghostbusters. Even with Dan being a Solar Knight, it wouldn't prevent the disaster. She thought it best not to tell Egon more than she already knew, but another thought had crossed her mind.

"I'm not trying to pry because of any other reason than making sure we can go forward," Egon went back to his coffee cup and peered into it, "We've been through a few instances of Time Travel ourselves; we accidentally prevented Christmas being a modern holiday." Raye raised an eyebrow at that. "Believe me, as questionable as it sounds, it wasn't pretty."

"I was feeling like we could have normal lives again, but now I'm not sure what to feel."

"The sense of urgency," Egon took a drink of his coffee as Raye looked to him. Egon stayed silent for a moment as he thought it over, "We all wish to be useful; to be needed. At first I thought I needed to be in the field with the team. That is, until my body couldn't take the abuse it used to. Garrett looks up to me and has told me how much he feels the need for my guidance. Maybe, when the time comes, you'll understand that urgency - although present - doesn't have to acted upon at that moment."

"So what you're saying is, because there's something going on, I'm excited about it?"

"Yes." she was offended by that response, but Egon knew what was coming, "I'm not saying you wanted something bad to happen, but you wanted to be needed. Its natural for people to be that way." Raye was still tense from Egon's response, but after a moment she realized what he was saying. Sitting dormant for many years had made her somewhat complacent. Tokyo was safe, as was New York for a time. He was right. Without a sense of purpose, her and the other Scouts were growing restless. She secretly wanted to fight as Sailor Mars again, but she also knew what that meant for the people. She felt guilty for the thoughts she had, but Egon was right.

Egon looked to his watch and saw the time, "It's going to be daylight in a few hours. You might want to try and readjust your body to the time here and get some kind of sleep. We'll try the fire reading again in a few days." The two of them stood leaving their mugs behind. Just before she walked toward the spiral staircase, she approached Egon and gave him a hug. She turned and rushed down the stairs after she was finished.

Egon sighed, "What. Am I. _Doing_?"


	8. Preparation

Chapter 8: Preparation

Saturday June 28th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

9:45 AM

It was morning. Kylie walked out of Egon's lab with a stack of books and proceeded to the stairs when the bunk room door opened. Lita, Amy, and Raye proceeded to walk out and began heading down the stairs ahead of her. She noticed the parade of girls heading down quietly. Lita was the last out and as she left, she closed the door silently. Kylie tilted her head to the side as they snuck downstairs.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs herself, Kylie saw Lita and her friends being joined by Serena and Mina. They were talking amongst themselves as she approached Janine's desk, putting her books down on the corner, "Hey, Janine, what's with the Anime convention going on here?" Janine looked up from her computer and saw what Kylie was looking at, "Looks like they're about to go shopping." Lita had turned and saw Kylie standing beside the desk behind Ecto-1. She told everyone to wait a minute then approached her, "Kylie, we were wondering something."

"What's on your mind?"

"Would you be willing to go with us today?" Lita put her hands together as though she was begging.

Kylie smiled, but shook her head, "I'm not a shopper." Serena approached from behind Lita and stood beside her, "Look, we're only asking because we need a guide. You're from here, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Then come with us today!" Serena started doing the same as Lita, "Come on, you'll have a good time! I promise!"

"Look, Pigtails, I'm not one for the whole, 'Girly' thing." Just then Janine placed her hand on Kylie's shoulder as she addressed Serena and Lita, "Could you ladies give us a minute or two?" The two Japanese women looked at each other then back to the Ghostbuster and the office manager. They nodded, then turned to walk back to the rest of their group congregating by the main firehouse door. Once they were far enough away from earshot, Kylie turned to Janine, "I can't go with them! I'd be the odd one out! Besides, I don't know the first things about…" she stopped talking as Janine picked up one of the books from her stack, "What are you doing with these?"

"Um… term paper?"

Janine put her free hand on her hip, "It's summer. You don't have classes."

Kylie sighed hard and looked down in guilt, "I was trying to do research." "Kylie, Egon gave you orders: No research!" She dropped the book back onto the stack, Kylie flinching as the book slammed into said stack. She picked up the stack and placed them on top of her filing cabinets as she spoke to the female Ghostbuster, "Look, I understand you want to find the answer, but when Egon makes a decision, that's it," she turned to her, "Maybe what Lita and her friends are asking you to do may be the very thing you need right now." Kylie looked up and looked Janine in the eyes. Janine's eyes were as soft as her voice, "Go on; you might like it. And if you don't, I'll tell Egon what you just tried to do."

Kylie's eyes went wide, "You wouldn't!"

A smirk appeared on the corner of Janine's mouth, "Try me."

"I heard 5th avenue was the place to start," Mina said excitedly. "I've heard of some really good bookstores along Bleeker," Amy added. "Actually, some of the best bookstores are in the Bowery." The girls turned and found Kylie was amongst them. The girls' faces lit up as Kylie shrugged, "I guess you guys got me today."

"What made you change your mind?" Raye asked. A light look of irritation came across Kylie's face as she crossed her arms, "I guess you can say I was blackmailed into it." Amy giggled, "Dr. Spenger told me Ms. Melnitz is like that."

"Blue," Kylie addressed Amy, "you don't know the half of it."

Outside, Roland's 67' Mustang was parked in front of Dan's F-150 with its hood open. Beside it was Darien. He looked at the large 302 engine that sat in the engine bay. The engine was so clean, you could eat off of it, "This is amazing. You rebuilt the engine yourself?" From under the car Roland pulled himself out on a creeper, "Yep. Ground the valves to get that perfect amount of compression." He picked himself up off the ground as he grabbed a rag to wipe his hands. He looked to the Japanese man looking into the car, "You know much about cars?"

"I know a little," Darien gawked at the chrome parts that made up the inside, "Nothing like this. What got you into mechanics?"

"Oddly enough, I remember seeing the Ecto-1 at a car show when I was a kid." Darien looked to the black man beside him surprised, "Really? Must be strange driving it." "It's like a dream, actually. Ever since that day, I wanted to be an Engineer just like Dr. Stantz." "Bet you never thought you'd be here, right?" "No, I didn't," a look of sadness came to Roland's face as he reached into the engine bay and grabbed the oil dipstick. As he looked at it he spoke, "I come from a rather large family. My parents don't make a lot of money, and with a lot of what's going on in my family, I'm just trying to make a better life for myself. All the while, I'm trying to be someone my brothers and sisters can look up to. It hasn't been easy. To have the opportunity to be a Ghostbuster…" He sighed.

He slowly placed the dipstick back into its tube as Darien put a hand on his shoulder, "When I was younger, I ended up in a car accident. I lost my parents in the crash," Roland looked to him as Darien's gaze continued into the engine bay, "I had no other family. I was orphaned. I spent a great deal of my life not even sure my name was actually Darien; I lost my memory in the accident as well. I understand what it's like to have to pull yourself from the bottom. Trying to do that and be a good person at the same time? It takes heart."

"Takes a great deal of grit, too." Darien looked to Roland. Roland started a smirk a bit as he looked to the man beside him, "We all need a goal in life; someone to care for." Darien began smirking back as Roland patted him on the back.

From out of the firehouse doors, all 6 women stepped out and began heading to the nearest subway station. Before disappearing around the corner, Serena broke from the group and ran up to Darien, "We'll be back in a while!" She jumped up and kissed him on the cheek then she rushed back up to the group. Roland took note of the goth woman coming up the rear, "Uh, oh. Looks like they hijacked Kylie for the day."

"Is that bad?"

"Depends. Either Kylie comes back wearing rouge, or all of them come back looking like Elvira. We'll only know at the end of the day." He turned to Darien, "Hey, you think you can help me with something today?"

Dan was still asleep. A little black paw had come up to his chest and started poking him. When he failed to stir, the paw poked him again and the muscles in his face twitched as he moaned. He faintly opened his eyes to see Luna staring him in the face, "YAH!" Dan's eyes were as wide as saucers as he jumped.

Luna panicked, jumped down off the Ghostbuster's bunk, and stood beside Artemis, "We're sorry, Dan, we didn't mean to give you a start, but you've been asleep for a long time now." Dan swung his feet over the side of the bed and sat. He rubbed his eyes as he yawned. He attempted to talk as he stretched, "Ugh, what time is it?" As he stretched, there was a series of snaps that emanated from his body. He stopped stiff as they occurred, "That didn't sound good!"

"It's 10:30 in the morning," the little white cat with the crescent moon on its head answered. Dan put down his arms and looked down, "What? Jesus Christ, Egon wasn't kidding," before he said more, he peered around the room, "Hey, where is everybody?"

"I believe they went shopping," Luna jumped back up beside him. Dan smirked, "Uh oh, the Sailor Scouts are takin' Manhattan!" Dan stood from his bunk. He was wearing a black tee-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He slipped into a pair of slippers as Artemis walked to his feet, "They also took that Kylie girl with them." Dan's eyes shot open again as he looked down, "What? How'd they manage to convince _her_?"

"Ms. Melnitz had something to do with it." Dan chuckled at that response, "Of course she did." "If I could impart some advice," Luna said sternly, "do not cross that woman."

"Guys, I learned that seven years ago when I worked here the first time," Dan turned and headed toward the bathroom, "You should have _seen_ the things she put Venkman through when he screwed with her. The slime in the boots was pretty damn funny."

Eduardo and Garrett were sitting in the lounge playing a game of NBA Live 2002. Eduardo was doing terribly as he always did, but today something was different. He wasn't mad or complaining. Garrett was being his regular boasting self as he made a layup, "Ewing going for three!" He sunk the basket. Shortly after, Garrett pumped his fist in the air in triumph, "Yeah! Who da man?" Eduardo had a solemn face as he gently put the controller down, "Yeah, good game." He stood and started walking away. It struck Garrett as odd, "Hey, Eddie? What's with you today?"

Eduardo stopped for a moment. He put his hand to the back of his neck as he thought in silence. He shook his head and he turned in place, "I dunno. I feel kinda conflicted about something."

Garrett rose an eyebrow, "Ooooo… kay?"

"Look, I kinda did something stupid yesterday."

"And this is different from any other day… how?" Eduardo began to scowl, "Can't you stop making jokes for _one_ _minute_? This is really bothering me, man!" Garrett looked at the man's face and saw this was no laughing matter. A sense of guilt started to well in the wheelchair-bound man as he looked to his fellow Ghostbuster, "I'm sorry, Eddie. It's just that you're almost never serious about anything."

"I know, but," Eduardo paced the floor as he started explaining, "I did something I shouldn't have. Yesterday, just before Egon told us we're not going out to work, I was up in the kitchen when one of Lita's friends came up. Slimeball ate my sandwich while I was talking to her. When he was trying to shake her hand, she was really scared. I felt something; this really overwhelming urge. I reached out, grabbed Slimer, and threatened him, almost like a reflex."

"_That_ was why Slimer was spazing out, and that was why Mina ran out of the room." Eduardo nodded, "The worst part is, I felt this extreme rage I never felt before. This sense that I had to protect that girl. I don't know why, either."

"Is it possible you like her?"

"How can that be?" the confusion in Eduardo's voice was loud as he spoke, "I mean, I just met her, but for some reason, she's…"

Garrett filled in the gap, "Familiar?" Eduardo's eyes went wide as he looked toward him, "I know what you mean. For some reason, I feel the same way with Raye," he averted his eyes, "It's almost like we've known each other for years."

Dan finally walked into the lounge still in his sleeping attire and noticed the two of them there, "Uh… Morning fellas." Eduardo didn't look at him. Neither did Garrett. There was a tension in the air, "Is something wrong, guys?" "No, no," Eduardo spoke up, "It's nothing, Boss." He was still looking away. It was clear something was bothering him, but it was just as clear it was not a conversation he wanted to have with Dan. Dan nodded, approached him, and patted him on the back, "Well, if there's anything I can do, let me know, okay?" Eduardo nodded his head as he kept looking to the floor. Dan asked openly, "Is Egon in the lab?"

"I think so," Garrett responded. "Okay. Just need to ask Weatherman Spengler what the Psychokenetic forecast is gonna look like for tonight."

"This is the strangest thing I've ever seen," Egon was looking to his PKE meter as he adjusted the dials. A look of confusion came over his face as he kept checking the bandwidth up and down. Dan looked over his shoulder as he watched the man work, "What's wrong, Egon?" "Almost all paranormal activity in the city has ceased."

"What?" Dan grabbed the meter as he looked the readings over. The meter showed a clear state, "That can't be right! This meter busted?"

"No, I've checked it against 3 other meters. Dan, there's no activity within Manhattan island limits, let alone from the other boroughs. It's silent." Dan handed the meter back to the physicist, "Under normal circumstances, I'd be happy about this, but I don't like it." Egon sat back at his bench, "Agreed. The falloff was too sudden. Overnight, activity dropped to zero."

"Maybe…" Dan hesitated as he scratched the side of his head, his hair still messy from sleep, "Maybe we should look into it." "No," Egon was stern, "I told you no operations this weekend. Whatever is going on, _I'll_ look into the situation." "I don't know, Egon, I don't like it; especially with the Scouts in town." Egon sighed. He understood what Dan was feeling considering the situation, but he also knew everything that needed to be done in terms of his mental wellbeing. He stood and walked to the window, "I understand, Daniel, but you've been working too hard. Between equipment repairs, artifact searches, creature detail, research… I know you want to make sure the team has what they need, but you simply cannot keep this pace up. You expect a lot from yourself."

"I do." Egon looked back and saw Dan looking to the floor, "Egon, I spent my whole life being told I was a screw-up and stupid. I work hard to prove these people wrong. The first second I stop…" Egon nodded, "I know. In my eyes, you've proven them wrong time and again," Dan looked back to the older man before him as he continued, "You need to take the time for _you_. And it's not just you, it's Lita, as well. Don't worry. We'll find out why soon enough."

Dan grimaced as he turned to leave, "Sure, because the answers will just fall into our laps."

12:30 PM

The girls had been everywhere from the Bowery to Midtown. At current moment, they had stopped shopping to have lunch at a Midtown deli as they all sat around the table. Everyone except Kylie and Serena stared at their sandwiches due to their massive sizes, "Is it common to pile this much meat on a sandwich here?" Kylie looked from her plate to see Raye looking for an answer to her question, the others looking at her as well. Kylie smirked as she shook her head, "One thing you gotta know about Americans, it's not that we wanna eat as much as possible in one go, we just wanna get as much as we can for our dollar. I normally save mine for Slimer." Serena was actively trying to take a bite out of her sandwich when she heard the name and put it down. Mina visually shuttered. "I see some of you met our lil' mascot."

"It wasn't just Slimer, honestly," Mina looked down at her plate. The events from the day before played in her head as she began speaking aloud, "Is Eduardo prone to violence?" Kylie wasn't sure to be horrified or confused at the girl's question. It was hard to decern, but she found it more confusing than anything, "Eduardo? Violent? That man couldn't burn the energy to be violent if he was on fire. Why?"

"It's just that, I was seeing Slimer for the first time and at first he scared me. I wanted to scream out, 'Get away!' and that was when Eduardo grabbed him and threatened him. It was odd," she looked to Kylie, "it was like he didn't want to do it. Does he just randomly lash out like that?" "He hasn't been like that since _I've_ known him," Lita broke in, "Are you sure he wasn't trying to impress you?" Mina shook her head, "No. He looked uncomfortable after it happened. He was even trying to apologize to him for doing it." Kylie's eyebrows shot up hearing that, "Eduardo tried to _apologize_ to Slimer?" She shook her head as though she was trying to shake the crazy out of her ears, "Okay, that is weird."

"Eduardo seems to be the, 'I'm charming, look at me,' type." Raye commented, "Garrett is the, 'Look at all the stuff I can do,' type. I think you're getting the two of them confused." Kylie attempted to hold back a laugh. The bad part was, she knew Raye was right on both counts, but decided to keep her mouth shut. Amy turned to Raye, confronting her, "You've been talking about Garrett since last night. Forgive me for being rash, but…" Raye cut her off, "There's nothing between us! I just met the guy!" In her panic, she spoke too much too loud. The whole table looked at her strange. Raye blushed and sank in her seat.

Sensing the tension, Kylie switched subjects, looking to Lita as she did, "I notice you haven't got anything today. Is there something specific you're trying to find?"

Lita suddenly turned red. She smiled a small bit as she bit her lower lip. After a moment, she spoke up, "I'm trying to find something _perfect_ for tonight. I haven't quite found it. Maybe it's because I haven't figured out something."

The goth in the group tilted her head to the side, "Like what?"

"What kind of dress would Dan like? I wanted to find something American. Something he would be familiar with. Something simple." As Lita talked, Kylie visually scanned the girl up and down. She settled on her earrings. Looking at the rose earrings, a thought had come to mind about Dan's family background. She only remembered one thing, and that was that his grandfather was from Kentucky…

Kylie nodded her head in silent agreement with herself, "Ms. Kino, I think I know what will work for ya," she looked to Serena, "Can I talk to you alone for a minute?"

4:30 PM

The girls had returned to the firehouse some time ago and were in the bunk room helping Lita get ready. In Egon's lab, Dan was using the sink and mirror to shave around his beard and trim his facial hair. He appeared stressed as he trimmed himself.

Dan was wearing a pair of black slacks and a white tee-shirt. Off to the side was a green suade dress shirt and a black necktie. Egon was at work nearby on his bench repairing a damaged Proton Pack when he looked at his senior field operative and saw him making slow progress, "Dan? Are you okay?"

Dan took the razor away from his face. Dropping the blade into the sink, he put his hands on the sides of the sink and took a deep breath, "I don't know why, but I'm _really_ nervous. I've been with her for the last two weeks, and _now_ I'm losing my nerve."

"She's just as nervous as you from what Kylie told me," that wasn't Egon's voice. Dan turned and saw both Roland and Darien step in, Darien speaking as they approached. Roland looked to the chair beside the sink and saw the dress shirt, "This is what you're gonna wear? It's really nice!" Dan looked over. He turned back to the sink and grabbed the razor to finish his work on his face as he spoke, "My mom got it for me a few years back for my birthday," a look of sadness came to his eyes as he said that, "She got it so I could go out on dates with it. I never told her about Lita."

"Why wouldn't you…" before he could finish his question, Darien felt a hand clasp on his shoulder as Roland spoke softly into his ear, "He doesn't like talking about his family much."

"I had a fight with her before I left Illinois," Roland, Egon, and Darien looked to Dan surprised as he began washing the rest of the shaving lather off his face. He grabbed the towel next to him and spoke as he dried his face, "I told Lita it was because I was working double shifts at work and that my mom wanted help rebuilding her house, but I didn't have time. It was actually because…" Dan closed his eyes and drew another breath, "...because I wasn't dating."

Dan placed the towel back on the rack and walked to the dress shirt, Darien and Roland moving aside as he approached. He began putting the shirt on and buttoning it up as Roland asked, "How's that different than any other mother? My mom drills me all the time about it." Dan began tying his tie as he responded, "Does your mom think you're gay like your father because of it?"

Dan heard Egon drop his screwdriver he was using on the bench. "D-Dan, I-I didn't…" Roland stuttered out. Dan walked back in front of the sink and adjusted his tie, "It's okay, Roland. Now you know why I don't talk about it. I've had to live with this my whole life. I always hated it when my mother called me by my father's name when she was mad at me. That day, she took it too far. It hurt in more ways than she realized that day. I only wish she could have met Lita, then she would know," he turned to them, "How do I look?"

Everyone was silent. Roland looked to Egon, his eyes pleading for some kind of input. Egon had nothing. The both of them looked to Darien, but Darien never took his eyes off Dan. He smiled, "You look good. You're going to be okay tonight; I have confidence in you. Just one thing."

Dan's face turned to one of concern, "What?"

"Tuck the shirt in." Dan looked down and indeed the shirt was still loose. Dan looked back up, him trying to suppress the look of embarrassment, "Riiiight."


	9. Out Again

Chapter 9: Out Again

Saturday June 28th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

5:00 PM

In a storage locker in the basement by the Containment Unit, a green set of arms rummaged around the locker flinging random objects and equipment around. "_Ah-ha!"_ Slimer emerged from the pile of equipment with an old shutter camera. He looked at the camera from the front as a high-pitched whine emanated from the device. He looked at it with curiosity until he clicked the shutter button activating the flash. Blinded by the flash, he covered his eyes too late. He growled slightly at his own ineptitude. After a moment or two, Slimer played with the camera getting a feel for the device. He put the lanyard around his neck and let the camera hang as he went back into the storage locker finding unused rolls of film.

Finally taking a camera bag from the locker and after storing the camera, long lenses, and the film, he put the bag over his shoulder and looked at himself in a nearby mirror, "_Yeah. Pictures!" _With that, the little green ghost flew himself to the upstairs door, photography equipment in tow. Tonight was special. A friend has requested his help, and he was obliged to do so.

The male members of the Ghostbusters along with Darien stood in the garage bay of the firehouse. Dan paced the garage bay as he waited for Lita to come down. The girls had stated they wanted to surprise Dan and the suspense was killing him. The engineer kept looking to his watch, "Man, what's taking so long?"

"Can't wait, can ya?" Dan looked to Eduardo and saw he had a dumb grin on his face. Dan gave a nervous laugh as he continued to pace, "Y-yeah." "Geez," Garrett raised an eyebrow at the man pacing around, "I've never seen you so nervous before. Having any reservations about tonight?"

Dan put his hands onto the Ecto-1's fender and leaned against the car, "Garrett, don't start. I'm… I feel like I'm gonna vomit as it is." Garrett leaned back in his chair, slightly picking the front wheels up, "Yeah, that'd put a real dampener on the date. Maybe you should _drink_ the Listerine."

"Garrett," Roland spoke up, "knock it off," Roland approached him and stood straight, "Dan, I'd like for you to have something for tonight. I think it would be for the best for you and Lita. Hold out your hand." Dan stood up and looked him in the eye, doing as he requested. Roland raised his hand and placed something into Dan's hand. It took a moment looking at what was in his hand, but Dan's face changed to a look of earth-shattering surprise, "R-Roland…" he looked up, "These are the keys to your Mustang!" As those words escaped his mouth, Garrett and Eduardo's jaws dropped.

"With Darien's help, we tuned it, washed, waxed, and detailed it. We want you to have a good time tonight." "This is a big deal for you," Dan was unsure of what just happened, "Do you really want me to drive your car tonight?" Roland smiled and nodded, "I know you'll take care of it. I trust you." Dan smiled back with sincerity in his eyes, "Thank you."

"Daniel Shannon?" Dan and the others turned to the sound of Serena's voice. Her along with all the other girls stood at the foot of the staircase surrounding someone. Serena cleared her throat, "I would like to reintroduce you to Ms. Lita Kino." The girls parted allowing Lita to be revealed. Wearing a pair of pastel pink heels, Lita was sporting a light pink southern style sundress with a rose floral print. She was radiant.

All the men had their mouths agape as Lita walked forward. Dan suddenly felt the room around the two of them fade to black as he began to approach her. He gently placed his hand to her face, caressing it. Lita's eyes sparkled as she looked into his, "Do you like it?" Without saying a word, he drew her into a kiss. Lita nearly collapsed as she was being kissed, Dan catching her with his other hand. Kylie was walking down the stairs as she saw the two of them kiss. She witnessed the near collapse, "Holy… Must be a hellava kisser."

Dan had released the kiss. Lita's eyes had rolled into the back of her head. She looked at Dan as he brought her back up to her feet, her turning bright red as she looked wide-eyed at the man before her, "I'll take that as a, 'Yes'!"

Dan stood up straight and walked beside her. He stuck out his elbow making a place for Lita's arm to slip through, "What ya say? Ready to see New York?" Lita smiled, placing her arm through his. They walked out of the firehouse doors as they approached Roland's Mustang. Serena came up beside Darien and held onto him as she watched her friends leave the building. Kylie came down and stood beside Roland, watching as Dan and Lita became silhouettes against the late day summer sunlight. Serena looked over and saw Kylie, "Hey, thanks for helping us find her dress today. It means a lot to her." Kylie looked over and smiled, "You're welcome. I have to admit, I did have a good time today. You delivered on your promise, Serena."

"Wait," Eduardo pushed off his locker and looked at the goth, "that's where you went today?" "Not only that," Mina broke in, "she also helped Lita with her make-up. It turned out great!" Roland, Eduardo, and Garrett looked at their fellow Ghostbuster. Kylie felt the eyes on her and started to get irritated, "What? Can't a girl have more than one talent?" Garrett snickered, "I didn't realize that talent involved colors other than black and white."

Roland piped up trying to relieve the squabbling, "You know, who's to say Dan and Lita should be the only ones to go out tonight?" Raye looked to him and agreed, her violet-colored eyes lighting up, "Yeah! Why don't we _all_ go out tonight? You guys aren't doing anything tonight, right?" "Nope," Kylie spoke up, "Egon has us practically handcuffed to the idea of no Ghostbusting, so sure." Serena shot her hand into the air, "I wanna try New York pizza!" That made Garrett project out loudly, "Well then, my dear, I have the _perfect_ place for us to dine tonight: Rocky's! Best pizza in town!" He began wheeling himself toward the still open firehouse door, "Follow me! I know the way!"

The group started their way to the door, Eduardo and Amy coming up the rear when the two of them noticed Egon and Janine walking down the staircase. Amy stopped, "Dr. Spengler! We were about to head out for pizza. Would you and Ms. Melnitz wish to join us?" "Yeah," Eduardo reiterated, "You and Janine wanna have a slice?"

"No, that's quite alright," Egon responded, "You all have a good time tonight." Eduardo and Amy looked at each other, Eduardo shrugging, "Okay. We'll save some for ya… if Garrett doesn't clean the pie out first."

"Or Serena, for that matter," Amy concluded. Eduardo held out his arm much like Dan had a few moments before toward Amy, "Shall we, _querida señora_?" Amy held onto his arm as she responded, "_Si, mi buen señor._" As they walked away, a look of worry reached Eduardo's face, "You speak Spanish?" "_Claro que sí, señor Rivera_." "Great, there goes half my insults to Garrett." They disappeared outside the doors.

Janine was holding her hands together as she watched the two of them walk out, "You know, Egon, we have the firehouse all to ourselves. How about we do something together?" She looked to him and fluttered her eyelashes at the scientist. Egon - in his infinite denseness - had a response, "Absolutely. You can help refill Proton Canisters while I repair Proton Packs." Janine stopped fluttering as her expression turned sour. She groaned as she started back up the stairs, "Ugh, why the hell do I even try?"

The passenger side door of the Mustang was opened by a valet worker as Lita stepped out. She looked to the awning of the restaurant, "Sardi's." She turned as she saw Dan talking to another valet handing him the keys, "I know you hear, 'you scratch the car, you're dead' a lot, but if I find so much as a handprint on this thing, I have a nuclear accelerator in the trunk. You read me, dude?" The valet looked at Dan with wide eyes and nodded silently. Dan then turned his attention to Lita as he walked around the car and to her side. They walked to the door, the doorman opened it for them.

Once inside, the two were greeted with a wall covered with caricatures of broadway actors. The place was bustling with activity, "Wow," Lita was surprised at the amount of people in the place, "Popular place." "This place is a Broadway institution," Dan looked around a bit himself, "never been here myself." The Maitre D stood at his podium as they approached, "Good evening, and Welcome to Sardi's. How many in your party?"

Dan put an arm around Lita's waist, "Two." The Maitre D procured two menus and lead the two of them to a table. After settling in, Lita looked around them and took in the atmosphere, "Oh, my. This place is amazing! I once wished I had my own restaurant; I would have liked it to be like this." Dan looked to her after she said that. Remembering what Amy had told him yesterday about her dreams…

"Good evening, friends," a man in a crimson red suit jacket and bow tie had approached the side of their table, "Our soup of the day is New England Clam Chowder. Can I start you off with drinks?"

Dan looked to the waiter, then back to Lita, "Iced tea?" She nodded. "Okay, iced tea for the both of us." The waiter jotted down the order, "Okay, do you know what you want, or do you need time?" "It's our first time here, so we wanna take a few to get an idea."

"Very good, sir. I will return with your drinks." The waiter promptly walked off as Dan looked to Lita. He kept his eyes on her looking at how beautiful she was. The way her make-up was done, the dress, "You look great tonight. The dress is perfect." Lita blushed again as she put her hands into her lap, "Thank you. Actually, it was Serena and Kylie that helped pick the dress." "Really? Kylie helped?" Lita nodded, "She noted my earrings and mentioned your grandfather was from Kentucky. From there, Serena found the dress. Besides, you're looking handsome in that dress shirt tonight."

That struck a nerve with him. His smile faltered a bit before he recovered. She felt the tension suddenly skyrocket off him, but was quickly suppressed. He attempted to act as though what he felt didn't just happen, "Thank you. I guess I can clean up every once in a while. I've been wearing that damn flightsuit for so long, I forgot what regular clothes felt like."

From there, an older man in his late 80's approached the table, "Evening, folks! Heard you're new to our lil' establishment." Dan looked up and realized who he was talking to, "Oh my God. Vincent Sardi Jr. Sir, it's good to meet you!" Dan held out his hand. Sardi grabbed his hand and shook it, "It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Shannon." Dan's eyes widened at that, "You know who I am?" "Not hard to miss when a Ghostbuster comes into your establishment," he looked to Lita, "And who is this lovely young woman?" Lita stood from her seat and bowed, "I'm Lita Kino. Dan's my boyfriend." "Is that so? You're not from around here, I assume?" "Nope, I'm from Tokyo. "Very interesting. Well then," Sardi went and pulled out Lita's chair for her to sit back down, "if there's anything you need, ask for me. You have a good evening you two." Dan and Lita nodded in acknowledgement. With that the restaurant owner shambled off slowly.

"Huh," Dan was looking after the man, "he's a lot nicer than what Venkman told me."

"Why?" Lita's curiosity was piqued, "What happened?"

"Back in the 80's, the guys performed a removal here. I was told they tore up the kitchen something terrible." From behind Lita, there was a small bar nestled into the corner of the room, a bartender currently pouring whiskey into a rocks glass. Dan took notice of a woman wearing a black evening dress, long black gloves that went up to her mid upper arms, and wearing her brunette hair short. She picked up the glass and downed the entire glass's contents in one tilt. She placed the glass back down and ordered the man to pour again.

Dan witnessed that and shuttered, "Oof, that's brave." "What?" "Don't look, but there's a woman at the bar that's downing whiskey straight. And it looks like… Wild Turkey? Ouch." The woman grabbed her glass and turned to the wider spaces of the dining area. The woman looked and noticed him looking at her. An inebriated smirk came to her bright red lipsticked lips. She slowly stood and walked over. Dan tried to look away from her nonchalantly, but saw her continue to approach from the corner of his eye, "Oh shit."

Lita didn't like the tone of his voice, "Now what?"

"For some reason the woman's coming over here. It's about to become awkward." The woman sat down in the unused seat beside the table as she placed her whiskey glass onto the table, "My my," the woman spoke in a seductive voice, "fancy seeing _you_ here." "Yeah, a very happy coincidence," Dan said nervously, "Do I know you?"

"No," the woman's light gray eyes looked to have difficulty staying strictly on Dan, "but I know _all_ about you. Daniel Patrick Shannon. Born August 25th, 1975 in Palos Heights, Illinois. Graduate of DeVry University with a Masters in Electronic Engineering Technology, April 22nd 1993. Hired by Ghostbusters as an Experimental Equipment Technician, June 7th 1995. Rehired as Senior Field Operations manager, November 14th, 1999. Pilot of the SERVe program. Yes, I know _everything_ about you."

The more she rambled, the more Dan became shaken. She leaned forward and spoke more, speaking low as she grabbed his tie seductively, "You…" Dan nearly choked on the woman's alcohol-soaked breath, "You are an interesting man. You went back to school and learned about nuclear physics over the death of a family member. Takes a lot to learn of what frightens you." Dan's frightened eyes looked to Lita for help.

Lita cleared her throat and spoke sternly, "Excuse me, lady, but what are you, a stalker? You'd best let go of my boyfriend unless you want trouble on your hands." The woman slowly turned to her as she began to smile, "You? You're his girlfriend?" She let go of Dan's tie as she leaned back into the chair. She began cackling, placing her hands over her mouth. The laughing continued for a time until Lita spoke up, "Why's that so funny?" It took another moment, but the woman's laughing started to die down, "Oh, this is gonna be more fun than I thought!"

"Maitre D!" Dan started yelling out. The Maitre D rushed over and saw what was happening before him. He came to Dan's side, "Sir, what seems to be the problem?" Dan looked to the Maitre D and pointed at the woman beside him, "This woman is harassing us. Could you please do something here?" The Maitre D addressed the woman, "Miss, can we speak in private?" The woman made an attempt to stand on her own, but stumbled a bit as she did. The Maitre D assisted her up, and they walked away to the kitchen.

Dan sat there terrified. He looked to Lita as though he was about to jump from his skin at any moment. Lita felt like she needed to ask a million questions, but didn't know where to start. She could only get one out, "Dan, who was that daffy woman?" Dan looked as though he was going to be sick, "I don't know! I've never seen her before! Lita, that woman was potted off her ass; she could breathe into a carburetor with no gas line attached and start a car!"

"She seemed to know quite a bit about you."

"That's what scares me!" That was when Lita looked to the kitchen door and saw the woman, the Maitre D, and Vincent Sardi standing outside the door. It looked as though the three of them were having a conversation. She wasn't sure what they were saying, but Sardi and the Maitre D took a step back after the woman stopped talking. Sardi lowered his head and nodded. The woman started smirking as she looked toward their table, then turned to walk back to the bar.

Sardi approached the table again as he stood to the side, a defined look of unease on his face, "I'm sorry, Mr. Shannon, but I'm to request that you and your date leave the premises." Dan looked up, disbelief in his voice, "What a minute, what did we do?" "The young woman has stated you had initiated contact and became rather belligerent. For that, I am asking you to leave."

Lita became upset, "But it's not true!"

"I believe you," he said as he looked back to the bar. He saw the woman take a new glass and had more whiskey poured into it. He quickly looked back, "but that young woman is the largest backer of Broadway plays in New York, and she…" he couldn't say anymore. The old man started to have tears in his eyes, "Just leave before I'm forced to call the authorities."

Dan stood from his chair, "Sure. Protect the drunkass because she can pay for the mark-up on the case of Cutty Sark she downs per hour," he walked over and began escorting Lita out. Before he got too far away from Sardi and turned and spoke one last time, "Be sure to give that woman a message from me: Don't go breathing on any open flames."

Dan slammed the car door behind him, Lita crawling in and closing her door behind her soon after. She saw Dan gripping the wheel, his knuckles becoming white from his intense grip, "Fucking rich people! Every last one of 'em." He put the Mustang into gear and pulled into traffic. The man was exuding anger at the situation, "This is the kind of thing me and my family hate. We bust our asses to attempt to have a good time just to have a bunch of trust-fund parasites ruin it because that's their form of entertainment. It just pisses me off!"

"Dan, it's okay." He looked to Lita as she continued to speak softly, "We didn't have to go _there_ tonight. Besides you were right about the place; it _is_ an institution," she smirked, "A _mental_ institution." He started laughing, losing his sense of tension altogether, "You've been hanging around Eduardo too long." "I know this date just fell off the rails, but we still have the whole night," she placed her hand onto his which gripped the gear selector. He briefly looked over and saw that it didn't anger her at all.

"I'm sorry, Lita," he turned back to the road as he spoke, "I just wanted to take you someplace special tonight. That kinda got ruined for us."

"It doesn't matter where we go. As long as I'm with you, it's special." Dan looked back over and saw it in her eyes. She had the same look in her eyes as she did 7 years before. He remembered her riding in the passenger seat of his old truck…

That was when it hit. There was this horrible feeling crawling into his chest like a demon reaching into his soul. The feeling was so strong her empathic sense hit her like wine, "Dan, what's wrong?" He turned away, "Nothing. Just a bad memory." After a moment, he thought of something, "You know what? Instead of going someplace nice, why not go somewhere fun? There's a blues club that opened a few months ago a few blocks away. What ya say?"

"Blues club?" Lita at first was unsure, but after thinking about it, "Sounds different."


	10. Group Mentality

Chapter 10: Group Mentality

Saturday June 28th, 2002

Rocky's Pizzeria

6:30 PM

The serving platters were empty. Everyone had settled in after dinner and now Serena and Eduardo were in the game room playing Daytona USA. The mud flinging was becoming horrendous, "Hey, this is a rally race," Eduardo called out, "not bumper cars!" Serena was having a hard time keeping her car on the road and was slamming into all the other cars around her, her whining as she tried to turn a banked turn, "I'm not used to this game!"

"Your brake pedal is collectin' dust," the latino quipped, "Maybe you should try _using_ it on turns! And everyone says _I _got my driver's license out of a cereal box." "You ain't exactly in first place, Mario Andretti!" "Yeah, but I ain't in last like you, Jeff Gordon."

"Grrrrr," Serena was losing her patience, "you are such a jerk!"

"Ooooooh, _jerk_. I'm impressed!" Eduardo was actively taunting her now, "Learn that in the 4th grade, did we?"

"At least I graduated from the 4th grade!"

The Ghostbuster snickered, "Yeah, it only took you _three tries_!" He tried to suppress his laugh and he saw Serena actually turn red beside him, "Tell me, can you count to three?"

"Yes, and she can do it without counting on her toes unlike you," Eduardo saw Garrett roll next to Serena to see what was going on. He looked at her and saw her upset. He knew what was going on and decided to help change the odds, "Hey, Serena, don't let Eddie here get ya flustered. If he starts his crap…"

Eduardo saw where this was going, "Garrett, I'm warning you…"

"...just call him Goat Boy." Eduardo snarled for a brief moment before he heard crashing. He hit the wall while he was distracted. Serena began snickering back as she passed him. "You know," she kept peering over to look at the now annoyed Ghostbuster, "I can kinda see him chewing on a tin can."

"Why you little…" both Serena and Garrett smirked at each other, but that moment didn't last long. "Now Garrett, that's not very nice," Raye approached Eduardo's side, "after all, I always believed in an even approach. Wouldn't you agree…" she looked Serena right in the eye, "...Meatballhead?"

"Meatballhead?" Eduardo cocked an eyebrow and looked at the girl beside him when his view settled on the buns at the top of her head. He nodded as a look of realization graced his face, "Oooooh, _Meatballhead._ If the meatballs are _on_ her head, what's inside? Spaghetti?" Serena completely lost it and started hitting Eduardo in the arm repeatedly, Garrett and Raye laughing maniacally at the disaster they created.

Watching the carnage, the rest of the group commented, "Not a night goes by where Garrett doesn't mess with Eduardo," Kylie shook her head, "now he has a playmate." "I don't understand why you pick on Eduardo so much," Mina picked up her drink and was stirring the ice around with her straw, "he doesn't seem like a bad guy." "It's not that he's a bad guy," Roland was pouring more coke into his glass from the nearby pitcher as he responded, "he just doesn't apply himself. He has potential. We all just wish he'd overcome that fear of failure of his. He's gotten a lot better since Dan was hired back."

"Please," Kylie scoffed, "Dan's been more a detriment than anything. Eduardo was starting to come around until he showed up."

Mina looked from her drink as she projected her voice, "How can you say that? About either of them? Eduardo's dove into harm's way to save you multiple times!" She quickly performed a hard blink and a twitch as she realized what she was saying, "Wait, how do I know that?"

The goth raised an eyebrow in annoyance, "Eduardo telling you fairy tales?"

"During that whole Pied Piper thing, a piece of a building broke off and he dove to save you then," Kylie's eyes went wide as she looked to Mina. Mina continued, "Then there was that incident with the eye-stealing orb, you lost his Proton Pack, and he took the rap for you."

Kylie got angry at that, "Yeah, after he lost _my_ Proton Pa…" that was it dawned on her. Roland was surprised, too, "Wait, you actually lost _his_ Proton Pack? And he covered for you?"

That was when Darien, who had been sitting quietly this whole time, put his hand to his temple. He hunched over the table and closed his eyes, sucking air through his teeth as though he was in pain. Amy had also been silent, but took notice of what was happening before her, "Darien? Darien, are you okay?" "Yeah," he responded in a strained voice, "Yeah, Amy, I'm okay. I just need some air." He stood up and started heading toward the exit. Amy rushed after him.

Once outside, Darien leaned against the building with both his hands against his temples. Amy came out after and saw where he stood, "Darien, are you sure you're okay? Maybe we should take you back to the hotel." "No," he looked over to her, "I need to talk to Luna and Artemis. I need to talk with Egon. Now!"

Amy walked back inside and saw everyone gathering around the table again. Serena saw her by the door and walked up to her, both of them out of earshot of the group, "Amy, where did Darien go?" "Serena, we're going to need to stay out a little while longer. He needs to talk to Dr. Spengler."

The blonde pigtailed girl tilted her head to the side, "Talk to Egon? What about?"

The Iridium

7:00 PM

Dan and Lita had finally finished dinner and now they watched local blues acts perform on the stage before them. Lita was amazed at the sounds she heard. The power of the music had her sitting close to Dan. Even when the songs that were played had sad lyrics, she found comfort in the rhythm and soul of the music over all. She never heard anything so beautiful in her life. She laid her head on Dan chest as he reached his arm around her.

"You always told me you loved blues music, but I never listened to it," she held him closer, "It's so moving." "We all need some company," she looked up and saw Dan with a somber smile on his face, "Been listening to it for the last few years, especially." "'We all need some company'? What do you mean?"

"The thing you need to know about this kind of music is that it always reminds you of better things despite feeling down. It gets you up again."

"It must have been hard," Lita felt a twinge of guilt fill her heart as she realized what he meant, "I kept trying to write to you after my grandfather…" she stopped a moment. Dan knew what she meant, "I know. Shortly after, I left that house in Joliet and I didn't tell my brother to forward the mail. You didn't know I left, and I didn't know you stopped writing. We were going to miss each other on the way somewhere. I kept listening to this one song over and over."

Lita kept looking into his eyes. She was feeling this type of sadness that hurt deep. She spoke softly, "What song?" It was at that moment the band finished their set. That was when an idea came to him, "I'd tell you, but I think I'll show you instead." Dan stood and walked quickly to the stage. The singer of the band noticed him approach. She watched on as Dan and the singer had a short conversation. The singer smiled and nodded. They shook hands. The other people in the room were talking and being curious as they watched the singer talk to the band.

After a moment, the singer came to the mic, "Hey there folks," the man spoke smoothly as he addressed the crowd, "we were about to go on a short hiatus here before starting our second set, but we got ourselves a couple of birds here that have a lil' expressin' ta do. By special request by our new friend here, we dedicate this one to all you irreplaceable ones."

As Dan walked back to Lita, the band started playing, "Nothing Takes The Place Of You" by Toussaint McCall. As the singer began the lyrics, Dan reached out his hand in offer to dance. Lita looked to his hand, then back to his eyes. They were glistening. She took his hand and stood.

_I moved your pictures_

_From my wall_

_And I replaced them_

_Both large and small_

They came together and walked to an open spot on the floor. They began slow dancing. They looked into each others eyes as they danced.

_And each new day_

_Finds me so blue_

_Nothing_

_Takes the place of you_

_I read your letters_

_One by one_

_And I still love you_

_When it's all said and done_

_And oh, my darling_

_I'm so blue_

_Because nothing_

_Oh, nothing_

_Takes the place of you_

As the song reached the bridge, Lita rested her head onto his chest as she spoke, "I missed you so much. These 7 years have been long."

"Too long," Dan agreed, "I'm so happy you're here with me. I was lost without you." He rested his head on her's.

_I_

_I write this letter_

_It's raining_

_On my window pane_

Dan lifted his head. Lita looked up as he lifted his hand to caress her cheek again...

_I_

_I feel the need of you_

_Because without you_

_Nothing seems the same_

Dan gave her a kiss…

_So I'll wait_

_Until you're home_

_Again, I'll love you_

_But I'm all alone_

They broke their kiss as Lita looked into his eyes again. She held onto him tighter.

_And oh my darling_

_I'm so blue_

_Because nothing, oh, but nothing_

_Takes the place of you_

Everyone clapped at the two of them. They actually forgot there was a room full of people watching them. They pulled away, Lita seeing his tears. She cleared them away, "I understand." "I played that song every time I wrote you a letter. To hear it now…" Lita didn't speak. All the talking she did was done with her eyes. The warmth. Dan stood beside her and began escorting her, "Come on. There's one last thing I want you to see."

Linda Gross Theater

Chelsea Neighborhood

7:00 PM

Inside the main theater, Matthew stood before the stage and watched the rehearsal of their musical wrap before the cast headed to the Lincoln Theatre. Even after all the destruction in this particular neighborhood by the Draugr nearly two weeks ago, the theater was untouched. The neighborhood, however, was supposed to be isolated until all buildings had been inspected.

In through the doors of the normal patron entrance came Madame Holly, her wearing a black ensemble with long black gloves, "I trust the show is ready to go?"

Matthew turned to her mistress, the silver slicked back hair the same as always, "Yes, Ms. Bautista." Matthew addressed her differently in person of the production staff and cast. It was a necessary to not reveil her dual life in the presence of people not in the Order. This, however, didn't completely stop their conversations about what it was they were doing, "Matthew, I have a little surprise for you!" she stopped just before him.

"What is it?" he asked in an even-tempered tone. She smiled seductively, "I have some homework I need you to complete. It's for some _extra credit."_ Matthew took a step back, him taking offense to her breath, "You've been to Sardi's again, haven't you?" "It was a good thing I was. I met our favorite lil' ghost catcher while I was there."

Matthew's eyebrows twitched, "Is that so?"

"It wasn't just Shannon. He was with that new trainee you've been trying to get information on. Here's the kicker," she approached closer to his ear, "she's his girlfriend." Matthew had an expression of surprise as his Gydje pulled away. Despite being intoxicated, a smug look graced her face, "That's not all. Tell him what else he's won, Johnny?" She began walking to the stage and watched as the crew was packing up some of their equipment, Matthew turning after her with the look of surprise on his face, "You managed to get more?" "Why, Matthew," she turned from the stage back to him, "did you have so little faith in my father's old contacts coming in handy?"

"In all truth, I thought they were only good to you because it tenders you free alcohol," his expression changed to one of mild irritation, "Nevertheless, if it's information we can use, then it yields good use. What else have you learned?" "Now hold on, Matthew. I believe we're getting ahead of ourselves. How is that control box coming for the scaffold?"

"Our brother in the PCB prototyping lab is done with the electronics and he has already tested the device on the scaffold. Without a proper way to measure the energy emanated by paranormal creatures like the Ghostbusters, the only way we can test the effectiveness of the setup is to simply open the tome again near the device."

"How soon?"

"By tomorrow night, we'll finally be able to open the tome and draw its guardian out allowing us to retrieve the Second Stanza."

"Very good! Now, I'm going to tell you some _gooooood_ tidbits, and you better find out what I want."

"Of course," Matthew looked around to see who was listening. It was safe, "What do you have for me?"

"Okay, you can open them." Lita opened her eyes and was greeted with a vast landscape before her. She saw the sun setting before her on the horizon, "Oh, wow!" The sight was awe-inspiring. She walked forward and saw the whole city of New York below. Dan came from behind and put his arm around her, "There it is; New York. If you look at _just _the right moment, you hit twilight and find yourself in another world."

"It's so beautiful." She looked to the sky and saw the stars begin to crawl across it, the blue fading into a soft orange approaching the horizon. She looked around to realize where they were, "Dan, is this the Empire State Building?" "Yeah." She looked to him with worry on her brow, "Isn't this where you…" Without saying a word, he nodded, but he was calm. He did sigh, "After that night in the tower, my fear of heights was gone. Even now with the other flight pack destroyed, I'm not afraid to come up here. I come up here to remind myself that the only way we can survive is with each other."

She looked to him, inquiry in her voice, "What do you mean?"

He looked to the horizon as he started to rub a spot on his left hand with his right, "If I were alone that night I was thrown over the ledge, I wouldn't be here. Egon - like an angel from heaven - saved my ass from hitting the street. If I wasn't there for him and the guys, they'd all be stuck in some purgatory."

"Your first field mission," Dan looked to her. Their telepathic link told her all she needed to know, "The demon that sent them to another realm. You were so scared because you weren't sure you could save them. You don't like seeing good people hurt."

"I don't like not knowing what to do, either. That is just as bad as me hurting them personally. That's what scares me about the new team; I don't know how to help them because they don't want to be around me."

"Come on, Dan," Lita was starting to get annoyed over his discouragement, "Roland trusts you! He let you take his car tonight; I've seen him baby the Ecto-1! If he didn't want you near him, he wouldn't be anywhere close to you, let alone his car!" "All it takes is one fuckup and it's gone." Lita saw his face. She suddenly understood what it was he was worried about. Dan had to continuously fight uphill to gain the trust he has with who he has. It was his only form of self-checking to make sure he _didn't_ mess up. The first moment he makes a mistake, Garrett's words would be vindicated, and everything would be gone. That one line alone explained why even though he was trusted by some the team, one horrendous mistake could undo him. He was at the behest of, "Group Mentality."

"I can't survive without them, and they can't without me," he was still rubbing the spot on his left hand. Lita looked to his hand. That night before Jedite appeared, she remembered, "Your scar…" "It reminds me when I was thrown off and hanging on for dear life right over there," he stopped rubbing his hand and pointed to the piece of the observation deck fence that looked newer than the rest, "It's the other reminder that I have that we all need each other," Dan walked to the edge of the observation deck and placed his hands on the ledge, "It reminds me that the only reason I even know of this scar is because I'm not dead. I'm not dead because there was trust between me and the original Ghostbusters."

"It's not trust you're talking about; it's faith." Dan looked back to Lita as she approached him, "Even though you think it's trust, you could say the original team didn't have faith in you enough on your first field mission, yet you still saved them. It wasn't trust you gave them, it was faith. They believed in you. Dan, Roland has faith in you. So does Eduardo, if you can believe that. Eduardo told me the day I came here that you'll have all you need when the time comes," She put her arms around him as he stood back up, "I think that day is very close. When it comes, you'll have the faith of every person in this city. You know you have me."

Dan looked into her eyes again. He still couldn't believe he had this girl before him. With everything that has happened to them, they still believed in each other. They both looked to the sun as it disappeared behind the land that sprawled their vision. She sighed, "It's no Tokyo." "It's no Chicago, either," they looked back to each other, "We're just two strangers in a strange land." "Strange," she agreed, "but beautiful."

Dan brushed some of her hair from her face, "Defiantly beautiful."

Ghostbusters HQ

8:15 PM

"You're saying they're here somewhere?" Darien was standing before Egon as he was doing the late-day checklist on the Containment Unit. Egon nearly dropped the clipboard in his hand as he heard what was the most unusual thing he had heard all day. He dropped his hands to his sides as he asked Darien, "Do you know where they are?"

"No; not exactly. I just got this massive pain in my head when it hit me. I knew the feeling."

"This may be our good fortune," Luna jumped onto the workbench followed by Artemis, "Dan had told Lita he was having no success locating them himself. Maybe with the aid of your equipment, we'll be able to find them."

"Let's not get too advanced of ourselves," Egon halted, "Our absolute first priority is retrieving that recorder. If what you're saying is true, it may manifest on it's own," he went back to the Containment Unit's control deck and started checking the trap dock for defects, "After all, maybe the reason Dan hasn't found them was because certain catalysts weren't in place."

"Catalysts?" Darien and both cat guardians asked.

"Yes. Maybe a series of events need to happen for a reaction to take place," Egon lowered the trap latch and locked the unit then marked his clipboard as he spoke, "In my experience, motions need to be taken for an event to coagulate. It may be this very infestation that's triggering your senses to it, Darien."

"I don't remember it happening this way last time."

"As I understand it," the physicist commented, reading the unit's readout, "you were abducted last time. Is there anything you can remember aside of that?" Darien shook his head, "No. My mind's been messed with so many times, sometimes I can't tell when a memory is real, or a manipulation." "I understand the symptom. Been subjected to it myself on many occasions," Egon wrote what he read on the panel then turned back to him, "It grows tiresome after a while."

Artemis finally spoke up in the conversation, "What do you suggest we do about it, Dr. Spengler?"

"Unfortunately, there's so little recorded information on your places of origin, we were fortunate last time to have a synopsis on the Moon Kingdom. There are no records of an Earth Kingdom, and nothing on the Negaverse or this Negaforce. The only sources of information are you three and the Scouts. Dan as well. If you still don't have all of your memories from your previous incarnations, we'll just have to wait until they - as Venkman would put it - get knocked loose."

"That's a risky maneuver," Darien looked unsure, "Should we be taking that kind of risk? Waiting for it to just… come?"

"No, Dr. Spengler is right," Luna sighed, "Even me and Artemis are resigned to lost and locked memories. Forcing it will not make them resurface. It's the best option we have."

Egon walked to the work bench, removed the papers from the clipboard, and stapled the sheets together as he spoke, "I don't normally leave things to fate. Didn't believe in it, honestly. You and the girls have shaken my beliefs on fate, and that's not easy to achieve. The only one harder to convince of that would be Peter," he turned back to Darien, "When it happens, you'll know it better than anyone."

Darien reluctantly nodded his head, "I'd hate for things to hang on such a gamble. I hope I know it when I see it."


	11. Assault On Hook & Ladder 8

Chapter 11: Assault on Hook & Ladder 8

Saturday June 28nd, 2002

Lincoln Theatre

10:35 PM

Patrons of the theater had been released and were now lingering around the theater building. Normal folks, high classes, people of all backgrounds were exiting hailing cabs and walking away. People were laughing and talking about what they had seen.

A screech emanated from the skies above.

People stood frozen.

_They_ had returned.

Creatures swooped and dived into the night lights of the theater district and started attacking people. A Man-Bat creature flew down and started hovering in place before the theater marquee, flapping its wings hard enough to create wind so powerful, it knocked cars onto their sides.

People screamed as what seemed like _far_ more creatures than there were the day previous as they started destroying buildings and other property at an insurmountable rate. The theater manager had looked outside and saw the servere chaos as it unfolded before him. He ran back to one of the payphones inside and dialed an operator, "Operator, get me the number of the Ghostbusters!"

Battery Park

Dan and Lita sat on a bench and looked to the night sky, the lights at the base of the nearby Statue of Liberty lit up showing her in all her splendor. The two of them were very close, Dan's arm around her as they looked over the bay to Liberty Island, "Such a beautiful night. Surprised this summer's been so mild so far."

Lita sighed in satisfaction, "It's so perfect. This whole night was great." She looked up to him as he saw a tired, but satisfied look on his face.

_Click!_

Dan started looking around as he heard a noise, "Okay, seriously, what the hell is that?" "What's what?" "That damn clicking noise! I've been hearing it since you came down the stairs at the firehouse!" As he looked around, she realized what noise he was referring to. At least, she knew what kind of clicking it was supposed to be, "I don't hear a clicking noise. Maybe your hearing is going crazy from all the sounds we were hearing tonight?"

"No, I started hearing it at the firehouse."

"Didn't you say you thought you we're going deaf?"

Dan looked down to her, "Lita, you don't go deaf and still hear sounds that clear."

_SCREECH!_

Dan and Lita looked toward the sound; toward Liberty Island. The light from the statue became blotted out as several objects started approaching, growing in size. The both of them stood from the bench as they saw a mass of Man-Bat creatures approaching them, "Case. In. _POINT!_" Dan grabbed Lita and they threw themselves over the bench as one creature grabbed the bench and broke it.

In the nearby trees, Slimer was making an attempt to change film in the camera. He managed to take the used film out, but was having a time putting the new roll in. That was when he heard creatures approaching. He turned to the noise and saw what was going on with Dan and Lita. He released the camera which stayed suspended from his neck lanyard and he clasped his hands onto his head screaming in panic.

A creature flew directly into his face and grabbed him. Panicking, Slimer grabbed the camera and activated the shutter which discharged the flash. The beast released him and rubbed its eyes allowing him to escape.

The two of them uncovered their heads as the wood that made up the now splintered bench fell off of them. They looked at each other as Lita grunted, "Didn't our date end like this _last time_?"

Dan responded in an exasperated voice, "Yeah. What is it with the paranormal screwing up our night out?" Another chunk of the bench went missing as another creature swooped down and grabbed it with its talons. They quickly stood and started running for the Mustang parked in the street.

As they ran, Lita tripped and hit the ground. Dan picked her up leaving him open for a creature to attack him. With one of its claws it took a swipe at his back as it flew by. Dan dropped to a knee as he screamed in agony. "Dan!" "I'm fine. Get to the car!" He picked her back up onto her feet and she started running again. Dan managed to get to his feet again and started following after.

Lita made it to the car and began trying the door handle, but in her panic forgot the door was locked. As Dan ran toward her, he called out. As she looked to him, he threw the keys at her. Her grabbing them, she started to unlock the door as Dan ran for the trunk. He proceeded to pull out a Proton Pack.

Lita looked toward him again after opening the door and saw him strapping on the pack, "When'd you put _that_ in the trunk?"

"It's Roland's emergency Proton Pack. He keeps a spare in his trunk for when shit hits the fan, and we've got _that_ in spades right now!" He pulled the thrower and charged the pack as he rushed back to the passenger side. Lita climbed into the passenger seat, Dan following behind, "What are you doing? Get into the driver seat!" Lita looked at him surprised, "Me?! _Driver seat?!_ Are you cracked?!"

"We don't have time to argue! Crawl over the console and start the car!" A creature dropped down onto the hood of the car and screeched. Dan lost his temper as he looked at the beast, "HEY! Stop scratching the paint, _numbnuts_!" He discharged the thrower and threw the beast off the hood of the car. By this time, Lita scrambled over the center console of the car and kept trying to turn the ignition, but nothing was happening, "The car's not starting!"

Dan kept firing his proton stream at the creatures trying to approach the car. He yelled back, "Neutral safety switch is engaged! Put your foot on the clutch!" He continued his defense as Lita depressed the clutched as she turned the key. The 302 engine roared to life as Dan backed into the passenger seat and climbed in while firing. Cutting fire, he closed the door and started rolling down the window, "Go!"

"I don't know how to drive, let alone a manual!"

"If you concentrate, you can tap into my skills," Dan reloaded his Proton Canister as he spoke, "I don't know anything about martial arts, and last time we were together I was able to do spin kicks. Do it!" He continued fire as Lita looked over the car's interior. She quickly took off her heels and started operating the car.

"Just concentrate!" Lita heard his words and started driving. The tires started squealing as the Mustang took off down the street. As they approached the intersection, a cop car rounded the corner. Lita slammed the brakes and fishtailed the vehicle into the direction they just came and started peeling out in that direction instead.

Inside the police car was Carl and Manny. They stopped dead in the road as the Mustang came at them, then swung its rear end toward them before taking back off. Carl stopped standing in the brakes as he looked at the car, "I know that car! Eddie's one nutjob friend owns it! Never knew that idiot drove that way!"

Carl turned on the lights and siren when Manny started to slap him in the shoulder, "Nevermind them! Look what they're _running from!_" They ducked as a creature swooped from the sky and tore part of the car's roof off destroying the lightbar, siren horn, and windshield. Soon after, Carl grabbed the shotgun locked beside Manny and stepped out. He unloaded 4 rounds into the sky and the creatures turned and followed the Mustang instead. "That's right!" Carl yelled, "You don't mess with the shield, punks!"

The Mustang screamed down the street as Lita tried to make way back to the firehouse which was 2 blocks away. The creatures kept attempting to dive at the car, but Dan was hanging out of the window firing at the beasts as they approached. It wasn't doing much, but it was making the creatures think twice. Lita was doing her best to use Dan's skills for driving telepathically but was having difficulty concentrating, "My God, your mind is a mess!"

"Now you know why I talk to myself! I can't hear myself think!" Dan yelled as he continued firing, "It sucks being me!"

As the car rounded another corner a Man-Bat creature jumped from it's position and latched itself to the driver door. It smashed the driver window and reached in to grab Lita. Letting go of the wheel, she grabbed the beast's arm and punched it in the elbow, its arm bending in the other direction with a sickening SNAP! The car started to veer into parked cars when Dan looked over and saw her struggling. With his free hand he grabbed the wheel, then pointed the thrower at the creature blasting it off.

Lita regained the wheel as another creature came into Dan's side of the car and pulled the particle thrower out of his hand throwing it out of the window, it dangling from its cord. Dan ended up pinned against his seat and the creature as it reached across the car toward Lita. He grabbed the beast by the head and started jamming his thumbs into its eyes, then forced it out the window. The creature dug it claws into the side panel of the door leaving a gash in the sheet metal, but it was in vain for it became caught under the rear wheel of the Mustang. The car thumped as the creature was crushed under the vehicle.

Shortly after Dan pulled the thrower back into the car, Lita checked on him, "Are you okay?" Dan was gasping as he looked over and nodded. He opened the glove box and pulled out Roland's emergency radio. Lita saw it, "He has a spare radio, too?" She shook her head as she looked back to the road, "Geez, he's paranoid!"

Dan activated the radio and started talking into it, "HQ, HQ, this is Shannon! We have a code red, repeat code red! We have excessive number of entities riding on our ass! Open the doors! NTQ, NTQ! Open main doors! Over."

Lita yelled over the engine, "What's 'NTQ'?"

"It means, 'No time for questions'!" He pressed the talk button again, "HQ, do you acknowledge last transmission? Over."

Roland's voice was heard over the radio, _**"Acknowledged, Shannon. Doors are open! Are you coming in hot? Over."**_

"Affirmative! Stand clear of entryway! Over." Dan lowered the radio and reclined back in his seat, arching is back in pain. Lita looked over and saw him sweating. Lita didn't like the looks of him, "Dan?" "I'm okay," he immediately replied, "When you approach the firehouse, don't stop outside! Pull in front of the Ecto-1 in the garage. Understand?" Lita nodded and proceeded to accelerate.

"Garrett! Eduardo! Get down here! We have a code red!" Roland was at Janine's desk on the P.A. calling the others downstairs. Kylie and Egon were already on ground level with Proton Packs on, the main doors wide open. Egon was just outside of the doors looking to both sides when he heard the sound of Roland's engine approach. The car screeched around the corner followed by multiple beasts and began approaching, "Incoming!" He ran inside just as Eduardo came down the fire pole and Garrett disembarked the elevator.

On the stairs came Amy and Raye. They stood on the mid-landing as everyone cleared way of the door. Amy looked to Roland as him, Garrett, and Eduardo approached the back of the Ecto-1 to retrieve a Proton Pack each, "What's going on?" "Dan and Lita are under attack! You might want to get back upstairs!"

Lita tapped the brakes and cut the wheel causing the Mustang to slide sideways. Without stopping she managed to pull the car straight into the garage. The car came to a squealing halt as Kylie and Egon rounded the garage door entryway and began firing Proton Packs, "Maximum pulse!" Egon commanded, "Push them back!" Several beasts made an attempt to gain entrance to the building but we're met with particle streams.

One creature managed to slip past and got inside. It flew around the bottom level of the building blowing over filing cabinets and knocking one of the equipment lockers over. Amy and Raye braced themselves on the staircase as the wind picked up. The creature spotted the women on the steps and proceeded to approach. Both Roland and Garrett saw what was happening and instinctively screamed in unison, "NO!" Firing just as uniformly, both beams struck the beast in the back and threw it into the brick outer wall of the stairs, Raye and Amy dropping to the floor of the landing.

The creature bounced off with enough force that it cleared the stairs and landed on top of Janine's desk. The creature's weight caused the legs of the desk to break and crushed the CRT monitor that sat upon it. The creature made contact with the power that energized the monitor and it started electrocuting it. Before anyone else knew what was happening, the creature stopped moving.

Eduardo jumped as the whole event happened before him, "Holy friggan crap!" Garrett angrily pointed at the girls as they stood back up and yelled out back at them, "Get upstairs! NOW!" The both of them jumped and started running back toward the second floor. Dan opened his door of the car, straining as he pulled himself out. He gritted his teeth and pulled himself to his feet after stumbling to the garage floor.

Lita opened her door and found the spare equipment locker knocked open on its side. She spotted an older style Proton Pack in the pile and proceeded to grab the device.

Once upstairs, Amy and Raye looked out the front window to see a swarm of Man-Bat beasts before them almost blotting out the sky. Amy pulled out her mini computer and started scanning, "Oh my… the building is completely surrounded and the sky is filled with those creatures!"

"I'm sensing a great deal of evil intent in these… _things_," Raye sighed as she brought her hands to her eyes. It was looking like she was reaching a decision she didn't think she was going to come to, but it looked like that moment came. She drew a deep breath, "Did you bring yours?"

Amy turned from her computer and the window. She knew what Raye was asking, but looked away conflicted. After a brief moment of silence, she looked to her friend, "Yes. I was hoping we didn't need them, but…" "Me too," Raye looked Amy in the eye as she revealed her transformation wand, "but we _have _to use them."

"How do we keep from being seen?"

"Egon showed me the roof access last night," Raye started running for the spiral staircase, "We can take the rooftops!"

Dan stumbled his way to the main firehouse doors and proceeded to join in the firefight going on just outside. Lita had joined in with the Mk. I Proton Pack some time before, but like the others had no success in repelling the creatures. Dan leaned against the door frame of the garage as Garrett took notice, "Nice for you to join us, Demolition Dan. Enjoy your rest?"

Dan didn't hear him. He didn't even care. Dan was starting to lose his ability to cognitively register what was happening around him. All he saw was a threat descending his company HQ and he was very displeased by it. He began firing as the others did. His aim was more erratic than usual. Garrett again took notice, but now something seemed wrong. He looked over, "Shannon, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he lied, "Pay attention to the firing line!" Dan's face was one of pain and weakness. Garrett watched as he wiped his ever paling forehead of the copious amounts of sweat that was drenching him. His dress shirt was soaking wet. He was panting. Something was definitely wrong.

"This isn't working!" Roland yelled over the stream fire. Kylie performed a sweep as she responded, "We have to keep firing! We can't let these things get inside!"

Eduardo was starting to panic, "There's too many of 'em!" "We're not gonna be able to keep this up, Egon!" Garrett was firing at every beast that came within 20 feet of the firehouse doors, "What do we do?!"

"I-I…" Egon continued to fire, but he was coming up short with an answer. He looked to Garrett, his eyes apologetic, "I don't know."

**"SHINE… AQUA… ILLUSION!"** What appeared to be a glowing, glistening stream of water rushed from above and washed over a large swath of the creatures. The creatures instantly froze and dropped from the sky crashing into the earthquake-damaged street, shattering on impact. All the Ghostbusters cut fire and dove to the ground, Garrett included, him abandoning his chair.

**"CELESTIAL… FIRE… SURROUND!"** Several discs made of what looked like pure fire dispersed through the sky and struck several Man-Bat creatures blowing them apart and rendering them to ash. Garrett uncovered his head and witnessed the direction the discs came from. A woman wearing a Sailor design body suit trimmed in red and violet stood atop of the building across from the firehouse. Her long raven hair blew in the wind revealing a tiara upon her brow as she relaxed from her battle stance. The paraplegic Ghostbuster was utterly transfixed on the woman.

A large number of the beasts had just been destroyed causing the rest of the flock to turn tail and fly away. After another moment, all the Ghostbusters started uncovering themselves and looked to where the bizarre attacks originated from. Eduardo began propping himself up to stand, "What. _The hell._ **Was that?"** He looked to where Garrett was looking to see the woman standing above them. Another woman dressed similarly to the first descended from the sky and landed beside the first, her costume trimmed in two shades of blue. Eduardo's eyes went wide, "Guys, we're _not alone!"_

Everyone with the exception of Dan, Lita, and Egon started up their Proton Packs again. The four of them started aiming at the women. The both of them threw up their gloved hands, "Wait!" the woman in blue exclaimed, "We're on your side!"

"How can we be sure of that?" Garrett was still on the ground in the prone firing position, pack armed and aimed at the two of them, "I ain't buyin' what yer sellin', so you best start praying!"

"Garrett," he looked to the voice that called him out, Egon putting thrower back onto the pack, "perhaps we should hear them out. They did just save us."

Lita was doing the same, "Do you always shoot people who help you?" "How do we know they didn't _cause_ all this?" Garrett's words made the two women gasp at the accusation. The woman in red spoke offended, "Why would you think _we'd _do this?" Garrett didn't lower his thrower in the slightest, "We shoot at these things for 4 days with nothing to show for it, and suddenly you two show up and conveniently fix the problem? I'm not convinced. Who the hell are you, anyway?"

Eduardo had kept his eye on the two of them when the design of the suit the two wore finally jogged his memory, "Wait! I've seen those costumes before!" He pointed at them, "There's another one of you around here, isn't there? One in green!"

Kylie lowered her thrower and looked to Eduardo, "You've seen one of them before? Where?"

"Chelsea. One was running away from the area. I forgot all about it when Dan collapsed." Lita heard that and was beginning to pale as she looked to Egon. She looked back to Dan to find he was still on the ground, "Oh, no! Dan!" Eduardo looked over with everyone else and commented, "Yep, much like that."

Lita rushed over along with Roland and Egon. Roland peeled the Proton Pack off him and found gashes in the man's back with steam rising out of the wounds, blisters forming on the edges of the cuts. He dropped the pack, "Oh my God!" Garrett looked over and saw that Dan was completely out. He began feeling his chest get tight, "Oh, crap! Is he okay? He's not dead, is he?"

Egon knelt down beside the wounded Ghostbuster and checked his pulse, "He's alive, but his pulse is weak! We're going to need a doctor," he looked toward the two women, "Or at least one in school for it." The woman in the blue trim nodded, taking the scientist's hint. She turned to the woman in red trim and had a silent conversation. The woman in red nodded her head in agreement, then turned to the Ghostbusters, "With any hope, we may not be needed again, but if we do meet, know we're on your side. Take care of your friend."

"Lady, I don't think you get the hint," Garrett was still pointing the thrower at them, "You're not going anywhere except containment!" "Garrett!" He looked toward Kylie who had a meter in her hand, "They're not ectoplasmic! There's no reading!" Garrett had looked away for only a moment, but when he turned back, the women were gone. "What the…?"

Eduardo peered around, "Hey, man, where'd they go?" "Never mind them," Egon picked up Dan by the shoulders with Roland grabbing his feet, "Dan needs immediate medical attention!"


	12. Open Wounds

Chapter 12: Open Wounds

Saturday June 28th, 2002

Lincoln Theatre

11:10 PM

The theater manager sat in his office as he spoke to Matthew. At first when he called the Ghostbusters, Matthew was still calm and collected, but at current moment an air of irritation was consuming the man. It made the conversation unnerving, "They said they weren't taking calls! I told you everything I know, Mr. St. James!"

"Once again, did you tell them who you were and where the disturbance was?"

"They wouldn't even hear me out," the man was gripping the sides of his head in a manic fashion as he sat at his desk, "before I could tell them what was happening, they told me no calls were being accepted! I've told you everything, I swear to God!" Matthew's face became rather stern as he spoke in his even tone. The tone seemed more menacing now than it ever was before, but for what seemed to be no reason, "As Ms. Bautista's assistant, I'm to inform you that all productions leading into the next season will have their funding pulled."

The manager looked to him, a look of betrayal on his face, "B-but… why? For calling the Ghostbusters?"

"Ms. Bautista doesn't want any of her backed productions associated with such a service. If that's how you're going to respond to a situation, we will not have you. Good day." Matthew turned and left the office.

Madame Holly was standing behind the ticket booth waiting for Matthew to emerge. When she finally saw him she approached, "What did he say?"

"He said they were not taking calls," Matthew was growling as he spoke, "He supposedly didn't get a chance to say anything to them." The man's demeanor didn't sit right with her. In the 2 years Matthew has been at her side, she has never known him to growl in any way as he spoke. "Then we're in the clear?" she asked. Matthew scoffed as he walked away. Something wasn't right.

Ghostbusters HQ

11:15 PM

Dan heard voices. He felt himself laying on his front. His eyelids were heavy; he couldn't open them. He attempted to do something - anything - to try and force himself to wake up. He managed to start moaning and shifting his weight a little. He heard a voice call out, "Dr. Spengler! He's coming around!" That sounded like Amy's voice and it was close. He heard boots walking across a hardwood floor to approach him.

One of his eyes was forced open and a light shined into it. Shortly after his eyelid was released, his other eye received the same treatment, "His pupils are starting to respond," Egon's voice said, "Amazing how fast he recovered."

"The dose is starting to neutralize," Roland's voice was next to him as well, "Might wanna start the second dose." "Agreed," he heard Egon say. Second dose? Dan was having a hard time comprehending what was happening…

He immediately ignored what was being said when he felt something freezing cold spread on his back.

"AH!" His eyes snapped open as his body tensed. He groaned heavily. Amy, Raye, Egon, and Roland jumped back away from Dan's flailing arms. Egon stepped up, "Dan, what's wrong? Are you in pain?"

Dan nearly shrieked, "_Cooooooooold!_"

"I apologize about that, Dan," Egon placed a beaker of green slime on the nightstand, "but there was a type of caustic ectoplasmic residue in your wounds that was actively burning your skin. It seems it had a secondary function of rendering you unconscious. I used a base culture ectoplasm to neutralize what was in your cuts."

Dan made an attempt to stand, "Ugh, I feel like I got run over by a truck." Amy grabbed him and pushed him back down onto his bunk, "You're not going anywhere until I can stitch up and dress your wounds."

"Wait," He was beginning to remember, "the creatures… the firehouse!" "It's okay!" Raye was placing a cold rag on his neck as she spoke, "They were stopped." "How? The Proton Packs are useless!"

"We had a couple of visitors," Dan turned his head to the other side of his bunk to look at Roland, "Two women wearing the _strangest_ costumes. They threw fire and ice around, but somehow they had no PKE signatures. Destroyed a huge amount of the creatures."

Dan's eyes went wide as he looked back to Amy and Raye. He had to of passed out shortly before the two of them attacked the creatures. Amy and Raye both nodded ever so slightly as for the others not to notice. The word, "Destroyed" kept echoing in his mind, and he wasn't sure why until he had it occur to him, "Oh, shit! Roland, your car!" He looked back to him, "I damaged your Mustang!" Roland did look visibly upset. It just made Dan feel worse, "I am _so_ sorry! I am so _very_ sorry! You trusted me, and I fucked up!"

Roland sighed, "I _am _upset about the car, but I'm not upset at you. You didn't do it; the creatures did."

"Funny how it happens when _he_ has the car though, isn't it?" Garrett rolled into the bunk room with Eduardo in tow. Roland was starting to feel cross with his fellow Ghostbuster, but tried to mask it with facts, "I'm just relieved he's going to be okay. Sheet metal's cheap. A human life isn't, or have you forgotten that?" Garrett felt a hint of guilt when Roland asked him that, but he felt like he needed to keep his appearance.

Considering all that had happened up to this point, Garrett felt as the problem truly was Dan, despite if it wasn't directly his fault. "Sure," he began, "he gets one scratch and suddenly everything's forgiven? If it were anyone else…"

"_You'd _be more forgiving!" Roland snapped, his voice picking up. Garrett was taken aback by Roland's interruption. Roland was truly getting angry at him now, and it was all over his face. He started hollering at the top of his voice, "I don't _care_ what your problem is with him, he obviously didn't cause it, provoke it, or wish for it!" He pointed to the bunk room door, "Get out of here and don't come back until you think about how much you care about life, even if it's someone else's!"

Garrett blinked a number of times in disbelief. He didn't even know where to start. He never expected this kind of treatment from Roland. He truly kept going over the line, but didn't understand why Roland was very slowly losing more and more patience with him. He became stern, "Fine. Maybe _he_ should learn such a lesson before he gets someone killed." He backed up nearly knocking Eduardo over, then rolled out of the room at an angry hastened pace. Dan was getting angry himself, but swallowed it.

Eduardo looked back to the group, "What is Garrett's deal? Why is he picking on the guy that nearly _died_ tonight?"

"You know why," by this time Egon and Amy were cleaning up Dan's back wearing rubber gloves from the first aid kit as Dan spoke, "He never lets go, remember? You and Kylie told me that." Amy began administering rubbing alcohol to the gashing in his back. Dan groaned and gripped his bedsheets as Amy washed the caustic material out of the damaged flesh on his back. She stopped and picked up the cotton gauze she was using to help clean the wound, "I'm sorry! Are we being too harsh?"

"Don't mind me," he said with strain. Dan was making strides not to groan, but it was a large area that was damaged. Amy was unsure, "I can try to be more gentle…" "Just do what you have to, Amy," Dan looked to her, "I'll live." With some hesitation, Amy proceeded cleaning the wounds. Dan tensed again, but heavily suppressed his groans.

As Amy cleaned, Eduardo watched with a small sense of unease, "Oh, man. That doesn't look good!" "Doesn't _feel_ good, either!" Dan grunted out. Eduardo squinted watching Amy work, "I bet." As he kept watching, he noticed something unusual about the cuts on his back. He blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't just seeing it wrong, "Wait, stop cleaning!"

Egon looked over to his student as Amy pulled the gauze away again, "What's the matter, Eduardo?"

"Does that first aid kit have another pair of gloves?" For a moment or two, Dan heard a new pair of gloves snap over another set of hands. He felt gentle prodding around the gashes on his back. "Um… Eddie? What are you…" Eduardo used both of his hands to open the gash wide.

Saying Dan was displeased by this would be an understatement.

Actually, there wouldn't be a way to quantify how displeased he was.

Dan screamed extremely loudly causing everyone except Eduardo to jump away from the very angry Ghostbuster spouting expletives at a rapid rate. After he was done swearing, Dan screamed at the top of his lungs, "What the **fuck** are you doing back there, you stupid cocksucking…!" He buried his head into his pillow and screamed.

Raye sat back down and grabbed Dan's hand trying to calm him down. She looked to the Latino, "Eduardo, he doesn't have any anesthetic! What are you, stupid?!"

He ignored her as he got a good look at the situation, "H-hey Egon! Amy, look at this!" Those Eduardo addressed approached closer and looked at what he saw. Amy saw it, "That's peculiar." Egon adjusted his glasses to focus better, "Hmmm."

Dan took his head away from the pillow, a look of panic setting in, "Egon went, 'Hmmm'! I don't like, 'Hmmm'! I'm not about to grow another head, am I?!"

Egon released his glasses and scowled, "No, you're not going to grow another head. It appears that the slash pattern on your back is inconsistent with stereotypical claw patterns."

"Great!" Dan said in a distressed voice, "That's just ducky, Spengler! What in the depths of unholy **hell** does that mean?!"

"Its deeper at the start of the edges of the slash," Eduardo explained, "meaning it wasn't an attack. It was trying to _grab _you by the shirt!" Roland had been standing from the side all this, observing, "That makes sense. The geometry of the cut is too steep on the one side." Amy looked to Eduardo, "Where did you learn about cuts in his fashion?"

"Criminal Justice courses. Knowing how to examine bodies after edged-weapon attacks was what I had to learn in investigation courses. Besides, look at what one of these things did to Roland's car. If this thing wanted to kill Dan, we'd be doing this at the morgue."

Raye shook her head in disgust, "Just _right_ out with it, huh?"

Dan spoke up, "No, he's got a point. Those things ripped through late 60's Detroit steel like it was cardstock; if they wanted me dead, I'd be dead."

"But what would they want with you?"

"I don't know…" Dan thought about it for a moment. He couldn't pin it down, until… "unless it wasn't me they were after. Now," he turned his attention behind him, "could you please _not_ perform my autopsy while I'm _still alive?_"

Down towards the main doors Garrett was at his locker gathering materials out of it, placing everything in a backpack. "Roland," he grumbled, "Fricken _Roland_ of all people. Man destroyed his car, and he _still_ defends him! And Egon didn't say a damn word in my defense. What is so damn special about 'Loose Cannon' Shannon that _I'm_ getting flack over pointing out his tendencies?"

"Maybe it's your terrible tact?" Garrett backed up to see past his locker door to see Raye standing at the foot of the stairs. Garrett rolled his eyes, "Great, _now_ my night is complete! What do you want? Come to tell me off?"

"Now that you know Dan's going to live, you just go right back to insulting him?" Raye's tone of voice had a layering of disgust in it emphasized heavily by anger, "Even _you_ know he didn't do it on purpose."

Garrett slammed his locker door and rolled toward her, "Where you figure that? Did your little firepit tell you that?" She took offense to that as he continued, "Look lady, I don't buy why you and the rest of Lita's friends are even here. Fire reading? What a crock!" He turned to leave when Raye instantly replied back crossing her arms, "Ha! Says the ghost catcher!" He stopped as she laid into him, "That man would do anything, _anything_ to protect you! Even after what happened to you in that restaurant, he's tried…"

**"**_**WHAT?!"**_ Garrett turned around and quickly approached Raye, "Who the hell told you? Who told you that? Did Janine tell you?" He grabbed her by the arm and kept yelling at her, "What else did they tell you?" The anger on his face was intense as he kept demanding information. Earlier in the night, the two of them had a good time, but now Raye was terrified at this man's presence, "What else did they say?! How did you find out?!" "I-I don't know how I knew that!" she yelled, "Please, stop! You're scaring me!"

"Garrett!" The two of them looked at the top of the stairs and saw Egon at the head of the staircase. He started running down at a heightened pace and split the two of them up, him pushing Garrett back, "Garrett, what is the matter with you? What are you doing to Raye?" He turned to Raye, "Are you okay?" She nodded. The original Ghostbuster turned back to his subordinate, "I'll have a conversation with you about this later. For now, go home."

Garrett saw how angry Egon was. He never saw Egon so annoyed since he's known him. Now he _knew_ he went too far. His own fear was getting him demolished in front of his hero, "Egon… Raye... I-I'm sorry, I…"

Egon shouted, "Get out of my firehouse, Garrett!" That wounded him. At that moment, he knew a bridge was burning. Laying his backpack onto his lap, he wheeled himself toward the main door and showed himself out, head hung low.

After Garrett left, Raye spoke up as she spoke in a small voice, "Egon, don't be mad at him! He's so angry at Dan…" "I know," she looked to the physicist and saw he regretted yelling at Garrett, but he stood firm, "but he can't go around threatening and insulting people just because of what happened."

"No, you don't understand," He turned back to her as she explained, tears in her eyes, "something happened between them… and I saw it."

"You saw the moment Dan destroyed his PlayStation?"

She shook her head, "The PlayStation was a red herring," Egon looked to her perplexed as she asked, "What do you know about the O'Leary Family Restaurant?"

Lita was extremely upset. She sat at Roland's work table in Egon's lab with Kylie. In her hands was Dan's dress shirt he was wearing on his date with her tonight, claw marks being torn into the shirt's back. She held onto it crying into its collar, repeating over and over again as she cried, "It's my fault! I got him hurt!"

Kylie was beside her trying to console her. She wasn't sure what to say in all of this. She said the only thing she could, "Lita, you can't blame yourself for what happened. There was a risk these things could have come back at any time including tonight. You took a chance."

"If he didn't have to save me," she lifted her head and spoke, her revealing her now ruined makeup, "if he didn't need to pick me up, he wouldn't have been…" She couldn't finish the sentence. She put her head against the shirt in her hands and started sobbing again. "Look," Kylie was starting to be stern with her, "he didn't want to see you hurt, either. If it happened to you, how would he react? Huh?" Lita looked back up and saw the goth woman beside her looking into her eyes.

Lita knew what she was getting at, but she knew Kylie didn't know everything, "Kylie, Dan is all I have left. All of my family is gone. I don't want to lose him like everyone else I loved!" Kylie's mouth became agape as Lita told her that. Lita again buried her head into the shirt as she spoke, her words becoming muffled, "I don't want him hurt, especially because of me." Kylie's never seen a woman this adamant over a man before. She was actually shocked by how the two were so protective of each other they were afraid to be around each other, one thinking they were putting the other in danger.

Kylie didn't want this woman before her to think the wrong thing. As much as she herself wasn't a romantic, she understood love. It was hard enough finding someone to care about who cares about you in return, but seeing people who actually _have_ it and be so caring they feel the need to be away from you… Yes, Kylie felt she was part of the problem. Throughout his whole time back with the company, Dan had been told and told he was bad luck and destructive. Between her and Garrett constantly stating out loud Dan was going to get someone killed made him actually start believing it. It was clear Lita must have had the same thing happen to her which is why she's starting to believe the same thing. When you think you are a jinx, you tend to believe the best love to give someone is far away from them, if only to save them from their own bad karma.

"Dan would hate himself if you two were apart again, especially if you _did_ get hurt and he wasn't there," Kylie was now starting to understand better than ever aspects of their relationship. Dan and Lita were both strong people, but they were strong for others. They've seen enough hurt in their own lives they didn't want others to hurt. It had to be painful; choosing to be lonely to avoid hurting others and becoming lonely anyway. It was enough to drive one to madness, "When I lost my Grandma Rose, I felt like I could never get close to anyone ever again. When I joined Egon's class, I started to believe in people again. I thought I lost it again after Dan arrived here, but you made me see differently."

Lita looked to the woman beside her and realized what she was saying. Kylie nodded as she concluded, "It's easy to give advice, but it's hard to follow. That man did what he did because he couldn't stand to see you get hurt. He gets upset then one of _us_ is hurt; it speaks wide to his character. If anything," she placed a friendly hand onto Lita's, "love each other so you know each other is there. If you get hurt, know he has your back to get the bastard who did it. Okay?" Lita turned and wrapped her arms around Kylie to gave her a hug, leaving the tattered shirt on her lap. She didn't hug hard, but she was silent.

One last thought went through Kylie's mind. It had plenty to do with what Garrett had told her and Roland yesterday…


	13. My Name Is

Chapter 13: My Name Is…

Sunday November 14th, 1999

Ghostbusters HQ

12:30 PM

It had been calm in the firehouse for some time. There was a bit of a media circus after a huge bust in the park, but things had gone back to normal. Well, as normal as paranormal can get, anyways. Janine Melnitz sat at her desk as she wrote up paperwork for a job that had been performed earlier that weekend when she stopped to answer the ringing phone. In her usual dry tone, she responded, "Ghostbusters. From here until Thanksgiving, we have a special: two captures for the price of one. Don't let poltergeists ruin your poultry on the big day."

From the curb outside, a roaring engine accompanied by a whine of a supercharger is heard as a set of wheels attached to a black vehicle parks just outside. A leg clad in denim carpenter jeans and tan work boots steps out of the vehicle soon to be accompanied by another. The door of the vehicle slams shut as the legs start walking toward the door.

"Now is it _actually_ glowing, or is it just hovering in front of a light?" Janine was too busy writing notes on the response tag to notice a man walking in wearing a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses. As he approached the desk, Janine finished her call, "Okay, the earliest we can get the team out is tomorrow at 1 in the afternoon… No, unless the victim is screaming in tounges, we do not consider that an emergency dispatch. Good day." With that, she hung up the phone. When the man finally reached the desk, she only looked up enough to notice the man there, but then back to her paperwork, "Welcome to Ghostbusters Headquarters, I'll be right with you."

"Is this gonna take long? Dr. Spengler has a delivery of wedgies I need him to sign for."

Again, without looking up, Janine held her free hand out, "I can sign for it." After a second, she realized what the man just said, "Wait, wedgies?" "Took ya a second, Janine," she looked up and saw a blonde-haired man wearing a Chicago Blackhawks hat standing before her removing his sunglasses, "What, you becoming as dense as Egon these days?"

She stood up and rounded the desk, then rushed to hug him. The man laughed as he received it, "I missed you too, Janine." She pulled away as she spoke excitedly, "When did you get in town?" "Last night. I let Egon know from the hotel, but I wanted it to be a surprise to you." "Well, you achieved that!" He smiled as Janine asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Well," his smile faded a bit as he took off his hat, "I'm looking for work. Egon told me if the operation went back into high to give him a shout. I came to see if he'd make good on those words."

"You know he would," Janine actually smiled as she walked back to her desk and pressed the P.A., "Egon, you have a guest!"

In the lounge area, Eduardo was laying back on the couch reading the latest J.N. Kline novel as Garrett sat nearby in his wheelchair reading an article on the new PlayStation 2 in Game Informer. The sheer gleam coming from his eyes was absolutely difficult to miss, "You have to see this Eddie!" He rolled over to his fellow Ghostbuster and placed the magazine in front of his novel, "Did you _see _the amount of memory this thing has?"

At this point, Eduardo was losing his patience with the wheelchaired man, "Hey, man! Don't you see I'm in the middle of somethin'?" "Look at the graphics!" Garrett completely ignored him as he had a wild-eyed expression on his face, "This thing will even be able to play my old PlayStation stuff _and _play DVDs! It's three machines in one!"

"Does it come with a mute?" Kylie asked at the nearby desk, her turning in her chair's place, "Seriously, you haven't shut up about that stupid thing since they announced it."

Roland was walking out of Egon's lab cleaning his hands with a work rag. He caught enough of the conversation to know what was happening, "Is he pining over the new PlayStation again?"

"Pining?" Eduardo asked with an eyebrow raised. He put down his book then snatched the magazine out of Garrett's hands. He held it up, "I think you mean _drooling._" Garrett went to grab the magazine back from Eduardo, but Eduardo put his free hand to Garrett's forehead holding him back as he explained, "Our _hombre_ here has been looking at these articles for two months straight."

"You know," Roland put the rag to the side before putting his hands on his hips, "it's not a bad thing to have a goal in life, Eduardo. If you want something bad enough, you save for it. That's how I got my Mustang." "I don't think Eduardo disagrees with you, Roland," Kylie stood and walked beside him, "but Garrett's _annoying us to death_ about it!"

Garrett hopped out of his chair enough to reach and grab the magazine back, "Hey, can I help it that this thing makes that Dreamcast thing Sega put out look like a proverbial garbage fire?" "No," Kylie began, "but you _can _help by being a little more silent about it!" "No kidding," Roland agreed, "even Casey's saving for one, but _he_ isn't talking my ear off about it."

"Good thing it ain't comin' out for a year," Eduardo picked up his novel and looked for where he left off, "Kevin wants one for his birthday. I'm tryin' to see if my sister-in-law and me can pool for it." "You're actually gonna wait for an American release?" Everyone looked at Garrett after he said that, confusion registering on their faces. Kylie raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that how it works?" Garrett grabbed the wheels of his chair and picked the front end up balancing himself on the two, a smug voice coming forth, "Not if you import it!"

"Import?" Eduardo asked, "You mean like bring it in from another country?"

"Exactly!" He dropped his wheels, "I got a guy in Japan I've been emailing. He says they're gonna release the console there in March. With the right modifications, I can get the console to work with American titles after the release here, so I can get on the ball before _anyone_ else, hehe!"

Roland had some skepticism in his voice, "Isn't that expensive? I mean, you have to clear it with customs."

"True, but I'm gonna go through an import broker. They deal in bulk, and I'll have to wait a few months after the guy ships it for me to get it, but I'll still have the system before **everyone**!"

Eduardo swung his legs off the couch and looked at Roland and Kylie, "You know, _I _like video games," he pointed with his thumb toward Garrett, "but I think he's lost his marbles over this."

"Absolutely."

"No doubt."

Garrett's stupid grin faded rather quickly as all of his fellow Ghostbusters agreed with Eduardo. He grunted, "Geez, tear out my heart, why don't ya?"

Egon walked from the stairs and began speaking to the others in the room, "Everyone, there is someone I'd like all of you to meet." From behind the physicist, a blonde haired man with a stocky muscular build walked forward. Egon spoke to him, "I want you to meet the new team, recruited from my class at the college," he motioned to Kylie, "Kylie Griffin. She's an avid parapsychological researcher and my top student." Kylie stepped forward and put out her hand, "Hey, how's it going?"

The man responded, taking her hand to shake, "Ah, you know. Getting crazier every day, if my Uncle is any indicator for what I'm in for." He smiled. Kylie rose an eyebrow at his comment, "You're off to a good start." "It's a talent!"

"This is Roland Jackson," Egon motioned to Roland, "He's been helping me build and upgrade new equipment as well as maintain all existing equipment. I believe you two will get along agreeably." Roland stepped forward as the man spoke to him, "Ah, fellow engineer, huh?" Roland's eyes started to light up as he heard that, "You're an engineer? W-what's your major? Industrial, nuclear…?"

"I've got a masters in Electronic Engineering," he responded, "Did a little bit of Nuclear, but that was for… different… reasons." Roland saw the man's face change as he brought up nuclear engineering. Something wasn't settling with him over the whole thing. He cleared his throat as he quickly changed subjects, "Is that your Mustang outside? '67 fastback, right?" "Yeah! Did a lot of the tuning on it myself."

"My mom has a '65. Ever reinforce those floor pans?"

Roland was actually surprised by his knowledge of cars, "Not yet. They're holding for now."

"Great," Eduardo stood up from the couch and crossed his arms, "another techno-weasle is in the firehouse."

"Yep," Garrett laid his magazine onto his lap and wheeled beside the Latino, "two peas in the proverbial soldering bench, it seems."

The blonde haired man looked at the two of them and raised an eyebrow. After a moment a look of bemusement came to his face, "Oh! I get it! I saw this episode of Star Trek!" He turned to Egon, "So, you built a matter transporter, Venkman stepped into it during a thunderstorm," he pointed between Eduardo and Garrett, "and these two chuckleheads were the result?" Roland busted out laughing as Kylie looked back at the two of them, "Woah. He's got you two pegged."

Egon sighed, "You and Peter's sense of humor were always at odds with each other." "I'd say, 'Collision Course with Wackiness', but Mystery Science Theater 3000 wore that phrase out." "At any rate," Egon was getting a bit annoyed now, so he attempted to finish the introductions, "this is Eduardo Rivera and Garrett Miller, my two best field operatives. Able-bodied and agile, they make use of environmental conditions to aid in entrapment."

The man smirked to himself, "Egon, I know you too well. That's just your way of saying they do the grunt work and not the thinking. Don't worry," he gave the scientist a hard pat on the back dislodging Egon's glasses, "I'll help change that."

"'Help change that'?" Garrett asked, offended. He was actively getting angry as his voice rose, "Egon, who is this nutbar?"

"My name is Dan Shannon," the man stated aloud, "I used to work here some time before you guys did. When I worked here, I was the chief sucker to test equipment."

Egon straightened his glasses, "I believe the title was, 'Experimental Equipment Technician'."

Dan looked back to him, "Just because you call a guy a, 'Ceramic Aquatic Engineer' doesn't change the fact it's just a fancy way of calling someone a dishwasher."

"Anyway," he ignored Dan's comment, "Dan has sought to become a member of the team again. In light of his achievements, knowledge, and experience, I'm assigning him as Chief Field Operations Manager." Everyone gasped at that. Dan looked at him with eyes wide, "_What?!_" Egon sensed the tension suddenly rise, "I'm sure with time, you all will come to trust Dan."

Monday November 15th, 1999

Quarter To Play Arcade

8:15 AM

First day out with the new team, the Ecto-1 pulls in front of a video arcade with Roland driving, Dan riding shotgun. "So," Dan started, "what we got here?"

"Sounds like we have a class 5," Kylie replied, her nose to the PKE meter, "It's an active signal and it's rowdy."

"Jolt Cola and Pixie Stix at the old arcade," Garrett quipped as he began rolling out the back, "sounds like my 7th birthday." Everyone else stepped out of the Cadillac as Eduardo butted in, "7th? Garrett, that's you _every_ birthday, even other people's." As everyone loaded up with equipment, Garrett asked, "So, Danny Boy, what made you wanna start slingin' the ol' protons again?"

Dan had an uneasy look on his face, "Let's just say me and my previous occupation parted on inadequate terms. I'd rather not go into it."

Inside the arcade, the place looked to be destroyed. "Aw, man!" Eduardo overlooked the destruction, "Kev's gonna be upset about this!" Dan looked to the Latino, "Kev?"

Kylie looked over away from her meter, "His nephew. They came to this place every other weekend, up 'til a few years ago," the screeching on the meter became more rapid, "Incoming!" Everyone drew their throwers and fired up their packs except for Dan. He was having difficulty understanding the new Proton Gun, "Uh… where's the on switch?"

The ghost emerged from the Pac-Man machine in the corner. It glowed electric blue as it screeched loudly. Everyone else began firing as Dan struggled to operate the new equipment, "What the hell do I do here?!" Over the fire, Roland shouted, "The Injection Ratio dial! That powers the pack and sets the beam intensity!"

Dan looked around the thrower and found the dial. He fired up the pack and went to fire, "Alright, bitch, time to suck positions!" Roland looked over and saw how Dan was standing, "Dan, I might wanna tell you…" Dan fired the stream, and the beam went wild. The force of the new equipment knocked Dan off balance causing him to stumble backwards into the Whack-A-Mole machine, falling head-over-heels over the machine and hitting the ground. While stumbling, the beam was still active causing copious amounts of damage to more arcade equipment and the ceiling.

Roland cut his fire and went to help Dan as the others continued fire, "I should have warned you sooner, but the Proton Packs have a 25% increase over the old models." Roland picked him up as Dan shook off the cobwebs, "I found that out the hard way. Jesus Christ," after getting to his feet, Dan looked at the thrower, "Goddamn thing kicks like a mule! I'm gonna have to build a recoil suppressor for this thing."

"Way to go, Dan," Garrett shouted, "You missed the ghost, but you nailed the Galaga machine and the prize crane." The ghost flew into another machine and disappeared. Everyone stopped fire and looked around, Eduardo peering around nervously, "Okay, where's he gonna come out next? The Crusin' USA machine?"

"You mean your favorite driving instructor?" Kylie asked while retrieving her PKE meter, "Maybe if you listened to Roland, you would have had a better chance at a driver's license." Dan heard that and looked to Eduardo, "You don't have a driver's license?"

"Well," he was embarrassed, "no. I can kinda drive, but…" "Oh, nonononono," Dan raised his index finger and waved it around, "'Kinda' ain't gonna cut it. When I get time, not only are you gonna be able to drive, I'm gonna teach you stickshift. And if you screw up and you scratch my truck, I'm gonna kick your ass. Get it?"

"Cut the chatter," Kylie looked to the now wild meter, "he's coming back out!" Everyone readied themselves as Kylie zeroed in on where the creature was. She pointed to an arcade cabinet, "In the House of the Dead machine!" "Well," Dan commented, "that's apropos." The machine flickered with life momentarily showing a Sega boot screen when the ghost flew out.

Dan braced himself and fired, striking the ghost in one shot. Using the stream, he started whipping the ghost around the room, smashing it into various arcade machines and into the walls. It took little time with the man's ferocity, but the ghost was knocked cold, "Chuck the trap!"

Kylie stood by stunned with the others as Dan performed a complete PKE accumulation drain using the physical environment, "Holy crap. He's _good_." "What are you doing?" Dan yelled out, "Posing for Holy Pictures? You're the only one using a trap; move your ass!" Kylie snapped out of her daze, "I can say this: the man knows what he wants!" She deployed the trap. Before anyone else could react the trap opened. Right before the panels closed, Dan yelled out, "You tell the other motherfuckers in the Containment Unit that Shannon sends his regards!"

Once outside, everyone unloaded their equipment and prepared to move to the next call when Garrett approached Dan, "Wasn't what you did in there a little… excessive?" "What?" Dan asked as he put his pack on the rack, "Don't you guys wear down a ghost before trapping it?" "By smashing it into other objects?" He took his pack off to hand to Roland to store in the back of the Ecto-1, "That's not the way we were told how to do it."

Dan looked a bit perplexed as he looked at the wheelchaired man before him, "What? Why not?" Roland placed Garrett's pack in with the rest as he explained, "When me and Egon redesigned the equipment, there was enough power output to discharge PKE on its own. There's no need for something like that." "Come on," Dan chuckled, "You telling me you guys don't blow stuff up every once in a while?" Garrett looked sternly at Dan, "Not like that." He wheeled himself up the ramp and put himself inside the car. The ramp retracted and the door closed.

Kylie and Eduardo proceeded to the back seat doors and stepped in leaving Dan and Roland behind the car, Dan losing what little smile he had, "I don't get it. Did I do something wrong?"

"The whole team is a little… bothered… by Egon making you field ops manager."

"I thought you guys respected Egon?" Roland looked to Dan uncomfortably. Dan caught a glimpse of the look, "Oh," an indignant look came over his own face, "I see. Look, I wasn't expecting to be placed in charge of this place when I came back. I came here just for a job. That's it."

"It's nothing against you, Dan, but…" he paced back and forth for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck, "You weren't here when the others came back for Egon's 40th birthday."

"The others? You mean Peter, Ray, and Winston?"

"Yeah," he removed his hand from his neck and looked to his fellow engineer, "They wanted to take the operation over again and pushed us to the side. I was willing to see past the egotistical tendencies, but it's hard to miss this being anything else than the same circumstances."

Dan looked to the ground. He sighed and shook his head, "This was not what I wanted," he looked back to Roland, "I couldn't care less about being in charge, trying to upshow anyone, or ego. I just want to do my job. If Egon believes that I need to be a leader, I'll do everything within my power to never let you guys down. If there's anything, that's a promise. It ain't much, but it's all I can give."


	14. Engineered Failure

Chapter 14: Engineered Failure

Months had progressed. The old SERVe program - Supplemental Ectoplasmic Response Vehicle program - had been reactivated. Using Dan's new 2000 Chevrolet S-10 Xtreme Dan called Lucky Black as the vehicle, both him and Eduardo were now paired up running radio calls ahead of Ecto-1 much like Dan and Winston Zeddemore did in the old days.

Many adventures were had between Dan and the new team up to this point, but also many mishaps. Property damage was becoming an issue up until this point, but in the end, no people were hurt or killed either by Dan's actions, or any entity the Ghostbusters encountered.

Friday May 5th, 2000

7:45 PM

Winter had passed. Eduardo and Dan were now sitting in the truck on the upper west side waiting for another call. They had less than an hour left on their shift before rolling back to the firehouse for the night. As they listened to the radio, Eduardo looked out the window bored, "Man, how can you listen to this stuff?" Dan raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong with Pink Floyd?"

He looked over annoyed, "It's putting me to sleep, that's what's wrong with it!"

"From what I heard, you could sleep through a Rammstein concert." "I don't know anything about you, man, outside of your dinosaur taste in music. Old blues music, progressive rock… This is all stuff my dad listened to." Dan looked over to the man and saw a look of pain on his face. He recognized that look. Something happened in Eduardo's past…

Dan turned the radio down as he started, "Okay, you wanna know me? What do ya wanna know?" Eduardo looked to him surprised, "Uh… I…" he stammered a bit, but didn't know what to ask. He ultimately gave up, "Never mind."

The two-way radio chirped as Janine's voice piped into the cab, _**"HQ to Black Rouge, come in?"**_ Dan picked up the mic for the radio and responded, "Copy, HQ, this is Black Rouge. Go ahead." There was a moment of silence, _**"Egon's saying PKE is getting lower outside right now. He doesn't think you'll need to be out there for the rest of the shift. Your choice, but you can go home now if you want. Over"**_

Dan looked to his passenger, "What ya say? Call it an early day?" Eduardo wasn't sure. He had been with Dan long enough now to know the man was a regular workaholic. He felt like he was going to get yelled at for wanting to ditch work early. Dan read it in his body language, "Come on, it's gonna be a nice day tomorrow from what I heard. Get stuff done at home, up early and enjoy the day?"

Eduardo looked at him skeptically, "And it being Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with it?"

"Actually, it doesn't," Dan had a very distressed look on his face. There was a look of depression that was seldom there, but Eduardo saw it from time to time. "Dan? Are you okay?" He nodded, "Yeah, I was just thinking about last year around this time. The last place I worked, one of the guys there's son was…" He was interrupted by the radio going off again, _**"Shannon? Did you receive last transmission? Over."**_ "Transmission acknowledged. Sorry, HQ, we were discussing it. I'll drop Rivera at home and head back. Black Rouge out." He hung the mic back up on the radio then leaned back in his seat, "Come on, I found a good hot dog joint. On me? How about it?" Eduardo was actually surprised. Dan wanted to ditch it early. Eduardo shrugged, "Okay. Hey, I ain't gonna turn down dinner."

"Yeah, really," Dan started the truck, "considering Slimer keeps eating all our damn lunchmeat." Putting the truck in gear, the truck pulled away from the curb and headed back toward Eduardo's neighborhood.

Mickey's Maxwell Street Polish

8:25 PM

At a bartop diner in Greenwich Village, Dan and Eduardo were served their food. Dan had two Chicago-Style hot dogs with everything, Eduardo a regular cheeseburger. Dan looked over at the Latino's basket and saw his meal, "I take you to the best Chicago hot dog joint in Manhattan, and you order a cheeseburger? You do _not_ step outside of your comfort zone, do you?"

Eduardo watched as Dan took a bite of his hot dog. He cocked an eyebrow at all the condiments that adorned the top of the sausage, "How can you eat something with that much crap on it?" After Dan chewed and swallowed, he spoke, his Chicagoan accent projecting harder to become noticeable, "This isn't gonna turn into one of those, 'New York vs. Chicago food' pissing matches, is it? This ain't the place to do that."

"Well… no, but…" Eduardo picked up his drink and swirled the coke inside it around as he thought, "are you from Chicago proper?" Dan shook his head and he grabbed his own drink, "I grew up in a small town in the south suburbs called Tinley Park. At one point me and my family moved to Joliet, and we lived there for a while. That was a hell of a time growing up. Eventually, I moved back to Tinley where I went to high school, then back to Joliet again after Ghostbusters closed."

As Dan took a drink, Eduardo thought about the town names, "Wait. Joliet? As in, 'Joliet Jake Blues' Joliet?"

Dan nodded, finishing his drink, "Yep. That's where they filmed the beginning of the Blues Brothers." That was when something else occurred to Eduardo, "Wait, that means you lived in a prison town!" Dan was about to bite more of his hot dog when he heard that. He stopped and looked at him, "So?" He realized he just annoyed the man, "Hey, man, I-I didn't mean anything…" Dan lowered the hot dog, "Hey, it's alright. I mean, it could be worse; I could have been living in Godly, Illinois."

"Godly?"

"The town right next to the Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant. My grandpa told me some horrifying things about that place," with that, he finally took another bite.

Eduardo picked up his burger and finally prepared to eat it, "I'm gonna regret asking, but what kinda things?"

"The scariest thing?" Dan cleared his mouth, "Diesel tank for the emergency generators not placed above the generators. There's no fuel pump on the generators; they're gravity-fed. If that plant goes into station blackout and the generators don't start, it's goodbye to a 50 mile radius of cornfield and over 200,000 square miles of contaminated air and soil. And that's if the China Syndrome doesn't set in and nuke the whole Midwest," he dropped his hot dog in his basket and put his palms to his eyes realizing the horrible vision he just described, "Great, now I just scared myself awake for the next two days."

Eduardo spoke with his mouth full, somewhat disturbed by what he heard, "How do you expect to get a girlfriend saying stuff like that?" Dan looked up and over to his fellow SERVe Ghostbuster. He realized he never mentioned her to him…

No. He couldn't mention her. Through all of what has happened in the last 8 months, he was starting to grow depressed and restless. Whatever happened to her, he felt responsible. When he got his first letter back after she said she needed to take care of something, he was starting to think he offended her. When he sent the second letter, he asked if he did something wrong. When that letter came back, he was already gone from his job. He had still yet to hear back from her. His brother hadn't mentioned a letter for him. He still felt awkward and embarrassed because at the time they met, she was very…

"Dan? Hey, man, are you okay?" Dan snapped out of his trance. He looked to Eduardo with a shaken look on his face. Eduardo put his burger down, "Hey, that whole nuke thing didn't bother you _that_ bad did it?" Dan shook his head silently. His heart was starting to hurt badly as he looked to the counter. After another moment, "I lost my appetite." He looked to the owner who stood behind the counter, "Hey, Mick? Can I get a box?"

Sunday May 8th, 2000

5:12 PM

The hood of the Ecto-1 was open as both Roland and Dan reached into the engine compartment. A ratchet was heard as Dan cursed under his breath. Roland caught that, "Sorry!" "It's okay; I shouldn't have put my finger there." They both crawled out, Dan waving his hand around, "That was stupid of me."

"There," Roland placed the ratchet on the tool cart, "now all we have to do is tune our new carburetor, and we'll be able to give this baby a test drive!"

"Hey, outta curiosity, how's Egon coming with the new Proton Special design?"

"The flight pack? He's still got some things to iron out."

Dan chuckled a bit as he started to clean his hands, "It's weird. I remember when I first started here, I was shocked to hear they were gonna have me test all this goofy new field equipment. I just learned a couple of days ago there were more pieces developed _before_ I was hired and it was tested by a different guy. Nice to know I wasn't the only guinea pig."

"To my understanding, you've made some modifications to the equipment yourself."

"Yeah. Made a remote trap system that was controlled by an old watch. Even put one behind my frame on both my standard pack and my flight pack. Maybe we can get some extra power out of the new one so I can fire it while airborne." As they talked, a man in a UPS uniform walked through the main door and began approaching the two of them with a package in his hand.

He stopped just before the Ecto-1 and looked to the two Ghostbusters before him, "Good afternoon, I have a package here for a Garrett Miller. Does he live here?" Roland answered the driver, "No, but he does work here."

"Must be his PlayStation," Dan observed, "Must of sent it here so he knew it would be safe. Must have been impatient to pay for Sunday delivery," he looked to the driver and approached, "I can sign for it." After a signing of paperwork, Dan took the package and as the UPS man left he looked at it. It had Japanese postmarkings all over it.

Dan felt a twitch in his heart. After a couple of nights ago, he started thinking of her heavily to the point he hurt another person's feelings. He looked at the box with a sense of fondness. He then became annoyed as he remembered, "I forgot, they took the contents out. Fucking Customs." Roland heard him say that and looked at him as though he said something strange, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Dan noticed his eyes on him. He glanced over and saw Roland staring at him. He shook his head, "Never mind. Just something that happened a couple of years ago that still pisses me off."

Roland asked in a friendly but concerned manner, "Anything you wanna talk about?" Dan looked to the package again then shook his head, "No, not really. Just thought about someone I knew a long time ago." He began walking to Garrett's locker to place the package inside as Roland spoke, "This person, are you mad at _them_?" Dan closed the door to the locker as he spoke, "No. They sent me a care package, and Customs confiscated what was in it. Just to be dicks, they sent the empty box."

"This person was Japanese, I'm assuming."

Back still turned to Roland, Dan hung his head, "Roland," he started speaking softly, "I'm not trying to be a dick when I say it, but please stop asking questions about it."

Roland, against Dan's request… "Was she special?" In any normal situation, Dan would fly off the handle. Alas, "Yeah," he nodded his head while still speaking softly, "She's more special than anything on this Earth," his voice began to shake as he spoke, "and I _miss_ her." Dan felt a hand gently clap his shoulder. He looked over and saw Roland giving him a look of understanding. Dan looked to Roland's hand, then to his eyes. Roland saw a single tear rolling down Dan's cheek. He sighed as he looked to his superior, "It's okay. You'll see her again."

"Roland," Dan spoke in a very small voice, "please don't tell anyone else." Roland nodded without hesitation, "Absolutely." Dan wiped his eyes as he cleared his throat, "So, do you know if Egon's gonna do anything with the charge system for the pistols we used to use?"

Both Roland and Dan turned away from the lockers as Roland answered, "He was very interested in your design ideas for it, but why do you want to use something like the… What were they called again?" "Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistols." "Right. They don't serve a major function to entrapment. Why have them?"

Dan raised an eyebrow at him, him grabbing the timing light from the tool cart, "Because they serve as a good backup tool in case the packs have a fault. You of all people, I figured, would be happy to have a backup weapon so in case something goes wrong with your pack, you can at least get away."

Roland took the light from the man before him and proceeded to pull himself under the hood of the vehicle hooking the device up, "Well, yeah, but firing off meson-heavy protons in semi-blast form? Isn't that a bit, I donno… dangerous?"

"That pistol literally saved my life," Roland looked back out of the hood and saw how serious Dan was. Roland crawled back out and set the light onto the radiator as Dan asked, "You think you got any ideas for the design Egon might consider?"

"I'll have to look at it, but I still don't understand why you want to use those dangerous things." Dan took that as an incentive to go to the truck outside and grab the pistol. Closing the toolbox in the bed, Dan walked back into the main door to the Ecto-1 and handed the device to Roland.

After a few minutes, Roland had looked over the pistol and handed the device back, "In all honesty, I'd use the Proton Canisters as the power source. You can add an electron sorter so it would make the hydrogen act as an electrical power source. Should make the pistol lighter, too."

Dan nodded, "Makes sense. Eliminate the need for the charge port. As of late I've been using an old Mk. I pack to recharge it." As Dan responded, Garrett had rolled down from the elevator. In his flightsuit's front pocket stuck out a Snickers bar. He rolled up behind the two of them as they conversed, calling out as he approached, "Rolmeister, Dan the Doom-Bringer, how's the new Ecto-1 modifications coming?"

Dan looked and saw Garrett behind him. He turned to address him, "'Dan the Doom-Bringer'? Do you just suck more every day, or am I just going insane again?" Garrett had grabbed the Snickers bar out of his pocket and began unwrapping it as Dan continued, "Anyway, to answer your question, we just got the carb on when I asked Roland's opinion on updating the Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistols."

Garrett had just taken a bite of his candy bar as he already went to talk with his mouth full, "You mean that hand-cannon you carry at your side?" He finished chewing then spoke again more clearly, "That thing makes RoboCop's Auto9 look like a cap gun." Dan took an offended stance on the statement as he pulled the pistol forward and looked the device over himself, "Well, it ain't a _bad_ lil' piece of equipment! Granted, it's bulky and a bit heavy," Dan started the device as it whirled up, "but this thing is a great lil' gadget in the right hands… WHOOPS!" The pistol slipped out of his hand.

The pistol hit the floor and discharged a proton bolt. The bolt tore through the air of the garage and hit one of the lockers. A hole blew through the door and shot through into the wall behind the locker, the bolt passing clean through. Everyone looked to the locker and read the name of the placard…

It read "MILLER".

Dan suddenly felt his heart sink.

"You shot my locker, ya dink!" Garrett rolled toward the locker. When he looked inside, he found that a decent size box with Japanese postmarkings was sitting in the middle of the locker's interior with a large, gaping, smoking hole in the middle of it. Everyone smelled burning ABS plastic and fiberglass. Garrett looked at the package, curiosity taking hold, "What's this?"

Yep, Dan _knew _where this was going.

Garrett grabbed the box and pulled it out. He looked at the Customs tag on the package. His eyes went wide and he realized what it was. He dropped his candy bar, "Ooooooh, no! Nononono!" He took a pocket knife out and opened the box. The box revealed another blue box that had a stylized, "PS2" printed on it, but had a hole in the upper corner. Garrett proceeded to take the box out of the larger box, opened that package, and revealed a black PlayStation 2 console with a clean hole right where the disc drive sat.

Garrett sat in disbelief as he looked at the damaged console sitting inside it's retail packaging. Dan had his hand over his mouth the whole time, obviously terrified of what just happened, "I'm so sorry, Garrett! It was an accident, I swear to God!" While still looking at the damaged console, Garrett growled, "Were you born this stupid, or did you have to work at it?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Dan pleaded, "I'll pay you back for it; every red cent. I promise!"

Garrett suddenly spun his chair around, the package flinging off his lap and onto the garage floor as Garrett bellowed out, "The only promise you've delivered on is that you're a loose cannon, Shannon! An engineer? Being an engineer implies you can build something for the betterment of others! The only thing you have to do with engineering is being an engineered **failure!**"

"That's _enough,_ Garrett!" Roland yelled, "He already apologized and promised to pay you back! What more do you want?"

"I want him _outta here!_" He rolled his chair closer to Dan as he continued to yell at him, "I don't like you! You're nothing but a damn jinx ready to bring doom on all of us! Just you being in this building is a detriment to our health! I may respect Egon, and I may have to respect his decision for you to be our leader, but that doesn't mean I _have_ to respect **you! **And why not? Because you're going to get us all _killed_!" With that, Garrett backed his chair, turned, and headed back to the elevator to head back upstairs.

Dan lowered his head with his eyes closed. He backed up and leaned on the fender of Ecto-1 as he put his head in his hands, "Maybe my old man was right; maybe I _am_ just fucking stupid." Roland heard him say that with a sense of tension. He didn't know what to tell him, watching as tears started to form in his eyes again, "I spent my whole life trying to prove him wrong. I even managed to get into college early and get my degrees just to do so. It never swayed him. When he heard I became a Ghostbuster, he came to like me less for it. I kept fighting to prove him wrong. Maybe after all of this, he was right all along."

"The only thing you're wrong about is being stupid!" Roland started being stern as he spoke to him, "In the 6 months you've been here, you've increased blaster power without going over heat thresholds, you've improved beam oscillation control, helped _me_ with the Ecto-1 and expanding the Containment Unit… you're the furthest thing from stupid I've ever seen in a person! I can only hope I can use you for inspiration," Roland put both his hands on Dan's shoulders, "So what if your father doesn't appreciate your intelligence? You gotta know that you've achieved something good! He doesn't have to acknowledge it; you do. You proved _him_ wrong. Be proud of that. And don't let Garrett get you down. As long as you admit it was an accident and pay him back, you'll be respected for being a good, honest person."

Dan looked to Roland. The younger black man before him had grave concern in his eyes. Dan knew he meant what he said. It seemed like Roland was the only one that was willing to hear him out. Still, the wheelchaired man cut him deep with his words. All he ever wanted was for the others to see his value. The only one that did was the man before him and the man who ran the operation. He just had to keep positive and keep working for their trust. Dan nodded. Roland patted him on the one shoulder, "Come on, let's finish tuning the Ecto-1." Dan nodded again as he picked up the box with the damaged console. The both of them walked toward the front of the car while Dan looked at the damage he caused. As he handled the box, Dan commented, "I guess this day couldn't get any worse."

"You better finish quickly, you two," the two of them turned to see Egon walking down the stairs, "We just got a call. O'Leary Family Restaurant is having trouble with 2 class 4 poltergeists…"


	15. One Slip

Chapter 15: One Slip

Sunday June 29th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

2:37 AM

"And… done," Amy tied off the last stitch in her suture finishing Dan's stitches. There was no anesthetic. Dan endured the pain as she sealed his cuts. Barely any blood escaped the wounds due to the caustic ectoplasm cauterizing them. Shortly after, she began laying cotton gauze over the stitches using medical tape to hold them in place, "You're going to have to change these dressings every few days to keep it from becoming infected. Lita may have to help you with them."

Dan was sweating trying to withstand the pain he felt, panting as he spoke, "I donno if that'll fly. She's pretty upset about it; she blames herself for what happened." Amy stopped what she was doing for a moment, "How do you know that?" "We have a telepathic and empathic link. It's how the Solar Knights know if their princess is in danger. They can suppress the link, but sometimes if Lita is extremely stressed, she links with me against her will and I can see and feel her thoughts. It goes two ways; she can see what I see, too. She's been with Kylie for a while now."

Amy tore another strip of medical tape, "That explains how you and Lita both received Jedite's dream message. How did you know you had this ability?"

"I definitively knew I had it after Darien unlocked my mind. I vaguely knew I had _some_ kind of sense, but I just thought it was instinct."

Amy packed up the medical supplies as she asked, "Have you regained any memory beyond what's already been unlocked?" Dan shook his head, "Not really. It comes in bursts, but the longer I'm actually with Lita, the more I remember. Has to be some kinda feedback loop or something. It seems like I'm remembering more in the last two days than before, too. Not sure if that has something to do with it."

Amy heard that and was intrigued. After Dan had randomly remembered the Earth Kingdom yesterday it seemed to add credence to his statement, but from the sound of it there was more to the memories and how they were recalled. It was something to consider.

There was a soft knock at the bunk room door as Lita, Kylie, and Raye stepped in. Amy took notice of Lita who had hesitantly stepped in and saw Dan laying on his front with gauze taped to his back. She had her hand clenched and brought to her chest as she slowly approached. Amy spoke up, "He's going to be okay." Lita picked up pace and knelt down beside Dan's bunk as Amy talked, very carefully caressing his bearded face, "The incisions were not very deep for too long. He had 8 stitches in each mark up to 5 inches each; the rest will heal without stitches."

"Dan," Lita had tears in her eyes again as she grabbed his hand, "I'm so sorry! If I hadn't tripped…" Dan interrupted her, gritting his teeth, "Don't you dare start apologizing." Lita blinked, an expression of shock registering on her face. Before she could react, he looked to her, "You better not apologize. There's nothing… _no-thing…_ for you to apologize for. Things…" he averted his eyes as he turned to his pillow, closing his eyes, "You're going to make mistakes. Don't you ever think you have to apologize; it's just what I have to do," he looked back to her, "Okay?"

_Maybe it's because he's in pain,_ she thought, _maybe he's upset about the ruination of the date. Or, maybe he knows he has to be this way because he has to protect me, but…_ She stopped her thought. That night as they were forced to leave Sardi's, she felt that spike of embarrassment flash over him as he looked to her, her sitting in the passenger seat of Roland's Mustang. She did feel his agony while stitches were being performed, so he might have been coming down off his adrenaline rush from the pain.

Still, there was something there. Something she couldn't shake, and it had to do with the morning before. What he said that morning to Eduardo…

Dan sighed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just mean to say there's nothing you need to be sorry about. It's just been a rough night," He crawled off the bed and hung his legs over the side, "I just can't let you beat yourself up like this. I…" Lita wrapped her arms around his shoulders and began crying hard. There was a feeling radiating off of her; terror. Something was scaring her badly, and it wasn't just the fact he was hurt.

Amy stood holding the first aid kit and made her way around the bunk joining up with Kylie and Raye. She spoke softly, "We best leave them alone for now." The two other women in the room nodded and made their way out. Kylie came up from behind and closed the door behind her, but not before stopping and seeing Dan's tired - and what looked to be ashamed - eyes. A sense of conflict started to rise within her as she felt sadness and pity, but also intense loathing for the man holding the Japanese woman in his arms. What she witnessed was an extreme conflict of feelings, not from what Lita said and how Dan acted, but also from her own feelings.

She sighed and closed the door, finding herself in the lounge area soon after with Amy and Raye, hearing what Amy was saying, "I'm really worried about them. It just feels like everything's against them." Raye nodded her head in agreement, "Yeah. Lita was so happy today. Those evil… _whatever_ they are, ruined their date. It's so sad."

Kylie scoffed, "Considering who it is she's with…"

Raye finally had enough, "Okay, what is you and Garrett's problem with Dan? Whenever either one of you are in the room with him, all I feel is hostility toward him! This is becoming ludicrous!"

Kylie growled, her pointing at the bunk room door, "That poor girl was crying over him being hurt for over an hour, and the first second he sees her, he rebuffs me? Does he not see other people's feelings are hurt?" Amy and Raye looked at each other, then back to Kylie. Raye spoke hesitantly, "You mean Lita, right?" "Of course I mean Lita! Who else am I talking about?" "Um…" Raye and Amy exchanged looks again, "I don't wanna jump to conclusions, but do you…" she looked the gothic Ghostbuster in the eye, "...like Dan?"

Kylie's eyes widened, her natural blush poking through her facial foundation. Her facial expression screamed, _I've been found out_ for a split second before she regained her composure and rebuked the idea, "That pyromaniac?" She crossed her arms across her chest, "Why would I like _him_ considering…"

"Don't lie!" Kylie was cut off at the sound of Raye's voice overtaking her, "You said he rebuffed _you_, not Lita! We both heard it!"

Kylie barked defensively, "No I didn't!"

Amy broke in, "Unfortunately, you did say it."

Panic started to etch on Kylie's face as she asked, "I did?" She put her hand over her mouth as she backed away, tears starting to form in her eyes, "My God, no…" Raye was watching as the woman before her started to fall apart emotionally. It was as though a well-guarded truth was realized, "Wait, Kylie…"

Kylie turned to leave when Raye grabbed her by the hand, "Wait!" Kylie struggled for a moment as she pleaded for Raye to release her. With all her strength, Raye yanked the woman toward her and grabbed her by the shoulders, "Will you get a hold of yourself! You're a Ghostbuster!" That made Kylie come to her senses. After a moment, her panic began to subside. Raye turned her toward the chair next to the couch and set her into it. She knelt down, "Are you going to be okay?"

"You're not going to tell Lita, are you?" It was the first question that came out of Kylie's mouth. Raye didn't hesitate, "No. I do have to ask, though: why do you hate Dan? Did he turn you down?"

"I didn't know about Lita," Kylie's mascara was beginning to run as she looked to the floor, "I have this thing about older men…"

Monday November 15th, 1999

Ghostbusters HQ

4:10 PM

Ecto-1 had returned after a somewhat hectic day in the field. All five Ghostbusters departed the vehicle with Eduardo and Garrett carrying two loaded traps each. Smoke billowed out of the car from the traps as Dan waved the smoke away from his face, "New traps, old traps; these things stink no matter what." Eduardo was holding the traps he had at arms length, "Yeah, tell me about it."

Roland closed his door as he looked to the team, "Whose turn is it for trap duty? Garrett?" "Not me," Garrett rolled forward, traps on his lap, "I got it yesterday." Kylie raised her hand, "It's mine. I'll get started."

"I'll join ya," Dan said as he grabbed the traps from Eduardo, "I need to see the changes Egon and Roland here made to the Containment Unit."

The basement door opened as Kylie stepped through with Dan joining shortly after. They made their way to the bottom as they spoke, "So with the increase of protons, the traps had to be enlarged to dissipate the overcharge. I don't totally understand the engineering of it, but from what I'm told it keeps the traps from frying out."

"Well, if you get too many ambient protons in the containment matrix, you might cause a containment field destabilization," Dan spoke in an understanding intonement as he followed the conversation, "In other words: Boom. Now you got a pissed off ghost to recapture. I get it." Kylie had in this time placed a trap on the floor and unlocked the trap dock on the unit. She turned to him, "You _are_ knowledgeable! I was a bit skeptical when you got here yesterday, but it seems like you got a grip on the situation."

As Kylie turned back to the trap dock in the unit to insert the trap, Dan shrugged, "I don't claim to be an expert. In all honesty, I still don't understand everything Egon and Ray accomplished here when I was here before. I only know enough nuclear physics to get by."

The Containment Unit clunked and buzzed as Kylie pulled the disposal lever, the lights on the unit turning from red to green indicating safe disposal, "What made you wanna learn nuclear physics?"

"My grandfather was a nuke worker. He came all the way from Kentucky to learn welding and worked all the nuclear plants in Illinois because of the pay," Dan went silent for a moment. Kylie had already grabbed a new trap to unload when he saw the look on his face. She knew the look, "Did he…?" He nodded, "Cancer. Almost 14 years ago." A small, sad smile came to his face, "I remember the Saturday mornings him, me, and my brother snuck out of the house and had breakfast at this little diner by the old Tinley Park train station. Afterwards we went to McCarthy Park and he'd watch us use the batting cages. It was the happiest I ever remember seeing him."

Kylie felt as he did, thoughts of her grandmother coming to mind, "Sounds like you really loved him." Dan nodded, a silent tear streaking down his face, "He told me about the cancer and that radiation had something to do with it, but I didn't understand what it was. I thought it was something you could get better from. It wasn't until they put him in the ground that reality came crashing in on me. That was when I started studying it to understand what happened. Shortly after, Chernobyl had it's accident, and I have been scarred since."

There was something about this man before her that intrigued her. Maybe it was the feeling they were Kindred Spirits to an extent. Although he was aggressive, he had a kind-hearted sense to him. He wiped his eyes and cleared his throat, "Hey, you wouldn't mind if I could…" he pointed to the trap in her hands. She looked to it, then back, "Huh? Oh! Oh, yeah, sure." Dan took the trap from her and proceeded to dock the trap himself.

_May 5th, 2000_

_Dear Grandma Rose,_

_It's been a while since I wrote. I'm sorry about that. Things have been rather unusual… well, more than normal… Grandma Rose, I've been debating this for some time and I'm not sure what to do about something. In the last few months of knowing Dan, I'm not sure what to think about him. He's been something of a mystery to the rest of us, and… he makes me kinda worried, but at the same time I feel safe with him._

_He's been a real driving force with us here; he's increased our equipment's power more than before; he's _actually _succeeded in teaching Eduardo to drive! He's still teaching him manual transmission operation, but you can only teach a monkey so many tricks at once. Roland likes being around him a lot; the debates on technical operations is like watching Geordy LaForge and Scotty talking. Actually, they're both Trekkies from what I can tell, so that sounds more accurate than I like to think._

_The only one out of all of us that doesn't like him is Garrett. After the arcade job waaaaay back in November he's been picking on Dan about his destructive behavior. I can't blame Dan for not shaking his old training, but Garrett is right. Back in the old days, beating a ghost against a wall was the only way to weaken it, but at least most of the ghosts we've fought had no chance against Dan._

_I'm conflicted, Grandma Rose. I feel like I… I might like Dan. His influence on this place has been astronomical. He actually attempts to understand the research I perform. This is where I'm confused: do I tell him, or not? I asked him out to that little coffee shop on Bleeker. He said he'd go. I'm so nervous._

Kylie checked her watch. It was now 9:15 at night. She sat at the table feeling uneasy, her coffee cup becoming low as she tapped her fingers on the tabletop. She had got there some 15 minutes before, and she _knew_ Dan and Eduardo got the call-off from the rest of the shift, so all it did was make her worry if she should go ahead with it.

That was when she heard it. From outside the window she saw Dan's S-10 with the red and white stripes leading up to the Ghostbuster logos on the doors. It stopped on the curb as the engine's blower whined down. She saw Dan step out and walk to the inside of the doorway. Her heart was pounding as he saw him walking up to the table still in his uniform. On nervous impulse, she spoke in an annoyed voice, "Where have you been?"

Dan sat down quickly, "I'm sorry, me and Eddie stopped to get something to eat before I dropped him off. I got stopped at a DUI checkpoint on top of it. It _is_ Cinco de Mayo," he rolled up his sleeves and looked to her, "So, what was it you needed to talk to me about? Did it have to do with that class 6 we handled earlier, or did you still need help with that 14th century zombie outbreak study?"

Kylie stared at him. She could tell he obviously didn't know the reason why she asked him there. She was still debating with herself if she should lead him into it slowly, or just come straight out with it. In the 6 months he was there, he made strides to be friendly with the team as it sat, but he had his own way of dealing with a situation which made him somewhat frictional with how the team operates. Seeing he was a Chicagoan in New York made him act like a far worse cynic than even Eduardo and Garrett combined, with a dash of Peter Venkman thrown in for good measure. She was beginning to think the direct approach was ill advised.

She meekly folded her hands onto the table as she attempted to begin, "Neither. Look, I called you out here tonight because I wanted to tell you…" before she could continue, a waitress approached and asked Dan for his order. It made her stop her train of thought as Dan ordered a coffee for himself. The sudden stop made Kylie's chest hurt. After everything was handled, he looked to her, "Sorry about that. You were saying?"

She attempted to continue, "H-have you ever got a feeling about someone, and it made you wanna ask them out, but when you got there, you weren't sure if that person was going to… You know?" He nodded, "I think I do. It's nothing you need to be worried about, honestly. I'm sure if you tell him, they'll jump at the chance."

Kylie's green eyes lit up from behind her eyeshadow, a small smile poking from behind her black lipsticked lips. Dan smirked back, "Oh my God, she can smile? And her face didn't crack?" Kylie's smile grew bigger at that as she giggled. She actually started to feel better about the situation, "I'm sorry. It's just that I have a hard time opening up about things. The only person I felt open to…" a touch of sadness came to her face as she remembered. Dan knew, "Your Grandma Rose. I know. It was the same with my Grandpa Armour. Took me a long time to trust others the same as I trusted him."

The waitress returned with Dan's coffee. Kylie looked to her cup and proceeded to speak as Dan made up his coffee, "Well, I'm still not sure what he'll say if I told him." "Tell me about him." Kylie looked up to him, watching as he put sugar in his coffee, "Well, to start, he's a good guy, if only a bit of a smart aleck. He's a tall man. Has a bit of an accent to his voice. Has trouble with an older brother," she bit her lip for a second as she contemplated dropping the much less subtle hint, "and he's a fellow Ghostbuster."

Dan was stirring the sugar in his coffee when he stopped and looked to Kylie with both his eyebrows up, "Really?" She nodded her head, her green eyes becoming even warmer as she did. Dan smiled a bit as he nodded his head in return, taking the spoon from his cup, "I think I know who you're referring too," he picked up his cup and pointed the lip of it toward her as he spoke, "I'll talk to Eduardo and attempt to soften the blow for ya."

The warm feeling left Kylie. She was suddenly thrown into a world of hurt she never felt before. She realized everything she said to describe Dan described Eduardo, too. Dan placed the cup to his lips as Kylie said aloud, "Dan, I was referring to _you!"_

Dan dropped the coffee cup directly into his lap as he looked at her in surprise. It lasted for a split second when he felt the hot coffee start soaking through his suit. He jumped to his feet causing the cup to fall off his lap and shatter on the floor, "Goddamnit!" Dan brushed the coffee off him as Kylie stood from her chair as well, "I'm sorry!"

Dan growled, "Don't you dare start apologizing." Kylie watched as he started grabbing napkins from the nearby dispenser and started cleaning himself up. The waitress came back over to see if everything was okay.

After everything was cleaned up, Dan sat back down, Kylie following soon after. Dan started, "Look, I have no interest in you in that way, Kylie. It has nothing to do with you. I like you professionally." All Kylie felt was anger. A little flame started to build in the back of her mind as she felt its heat spread through the rest of her being like a wildfire. "I get it," she said, speaking as though she was betrayed, "I'm the lil' weirdo goth kid that believes she's the mistress of the dead. Is that what you think?" Dan had a look of distubed concern on his face, "I just said it has nothing to do with you. My relationship status is… complicated. Besides, we're all Ghostbusters; we're already outcasts, remember?"

Tears were forming in her eyes, "You just don't care, do you? That's why you're such a destructive bastard. Garrett was right about you," she stood up, her voice quivering as she drove the final nail in the conversation, "You heartless, unstable son-of-a-bitch!" She started walking to the door, then it picked up into a run. Dan stood and turned as he watched her run out, "Wait, Kylie? Kylie!" The door of the shop slammed behind her. Everyone stood and stared at the Ghostbuster left standing alone in the room. Dan looked around him and noticed the eyes on him, "What're you all staring at?" he looked back to the door and sighed, "Show's over."

"I spent the rest of the night holding onto Pagan and crying. I didn't even bother coming into the firehouse for a couple of days after that." Kylie was hugging onto one of the couch pillows with her knees to her chest as she spoke to Raye and Amy before her. Raye sat on the coffee table across from her and Amy stood to the side listening to her speak.

Raye understood this better than anyone, "Kylie, I know that you know now that Dan has been with Lita this whole time, but you're always going to have feelings for him. I mean, look at Darien." Kylie looked up to the Japanese woman before her. For a moment she didn't understand what she meant, but then it dawned on her, "You mean you and Darien were…"

Raye averted her eyes shamefully, "Yeah. There's just circumstances in our lives that make things… not work in our favor. That's the nicest way to put it, too."

"You must have been devastated. Especially since Pigtails is…"

Raye nodded, "Yeah. I'll admit it; I was jealous of ol' Meatballhead, but they are meant to be together. No amount of jealousy is going to make Darien like me like that again, if he did at all. The best I could do is make sure they're honest with each other. That's what a real friend would do."

"The worst part about this was I wasn't honest with myself," Kylie had grabbed tissues from the nearby end table and was drying her eyes, her mascara coming off along with her tears, "I kept telling myself he was heartless and violent just to get back at him for not liking me back. Then I learned about Lita, and suddenly my whole reason for hating him became null and void," her tears started to increase again as she started whimpering again, "I've been such a terrible person about this; Egon expects better of me! I'm never going to be forgiven for this!"

Amy walked up and knelt down beside her, "I've known Dr. Spengler and Dan for a long time now. The both of them are forgiving to those with good character, and you have the strongest of character in this team. It's not too late. Be honest with them - and yourself - and you'll have this lifted off your shoulders. You have more respect from Dan than you know, but you have to come clean with him."

It had been a very long day. Kylie was finding herself in the company of these women who up until two weeks ago, didn't even know any of them existed. She just met these two particular women yesterday, was dragged around Manhattan island with them all day today, and now they're being a collective voice of reason. Of all the conflict that had happened between her and the team, she now had a better idea of what happened to herself in these last few years. Having to face herself was the hardest thing she had to do. Still, there was one person she lied to where she had to make serious amends.

"Thank you. The both of you," Kylie looked appreciative to both Raye and Amy, soon after blotting her eyes again, "Now I know why you're such good friends with Lita and Dan. I should have known if Egon could trust you, I could."

The three of them stood up and began walking back toward the stairs as Amy spoke, "It's really late. You should head home and get some rest." They all stopped at the head of the staircase as Kylie addressed her, "I will, Blue, but there's someone I have to apologize to first…"

_June 29th, 2002_

_Dear Grandma Rose,_

_I really screwed up. If there was one person in this world or the next I should have never told a lie to, it was you. Over the last couple of days, Lita's friends have been here at the firehouse and among them, I made one slip. I told you years ago that I thought I liked Dan. He rejected me, but at the time I didn't know about Lita. He didn't mention anything about her up until the Draugr destroyed Chelsea. I remember meeting her and Egon telling us she was his girlfriend. I felt this sudden sense of anger so bad I actually slapped Eduardo in the back of the head and stomped off._

_I told you Dan was violent and unstable. That wasn't true. I was so hurt when Dan didn't reciprocate my feelings. This whole time, I was projecting. I didn't want to believe it was me that was being hateful, so I used Garrett's excuse to cover my pain and put it on Dan. I was also, at first, jealous of Lita. After Garrett yelled at her at the Pottery Barn, I got my first glimpse of why I was wrong about Dan and why he shouldn't have been treated so badly by the likes of myself._

_Dan almost died again tonight. I really wanted to be there for him, but Lita was torn up about it so bad she blamed herself for him getting hurt. I really am worried about something that happened between them. Maybe it was because he was in pain, but he said the same thing to her that he did to me when we went out that night. He said, "Don't you dare start apologizing." From there that was when he rejected me. After what Garrett told us, and after my own experiences, I feel like Dan doesn't… I can't even write it. It can't be true; not after I've seen the aftermath of him jumping in the way of a demon's claws the way he did._

_Above all else, if there's anything I need to do right now, is apologize to you. Grandma Rose, I did the one thing you have never done to me to you; I lied. Dan is not the violent ruthless jerk of a human I thought he was. He never was to begin with. I wanted so badly to see him hurt, but when it happened I realized it wasn't what I wanted. I kept going with it because I felt like I was in too deep. I can only hope he can forgive me, and that you can, too._

_I'm so tired. After the assault on the firehouse tonight and the emotional drain… I can't be like this anymore._

_Please, help me make it through._

_Kylie_


	16. Siphon

Chapter 16: Siphon

Sunday, June 29th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

7:00 AM

From just outside the firehouse, Janine had entered the neighborhood via taxi cab to find several New York Street and Sanitation trucks littered throughout with workers scooping up what looked like parts of creatures. The workers wore gas masks and other PPE to ensure they didn't touch anything associated. The parts were carefully picked up and placed into red biohazard bags. She peered out of the windows and witnessed the carnage. She sighed, "Why am I _not_ surprised?"

Once she paid her fare and hefted a grocery bag out of the cab she walked in through the main door of the firehouse to find the garage area and her desk destroyed. She dropped the bag to the ground, "Oh my God! What happened?" Dan and Roland were pushing up the spare equipment locker when they took notice, them finally placing it in its proper upright position. Dan doubled over in pain making Roland look to him, "Should you be doing any of this in your condition? You should be resting."

Dan spoke while still doubled over, "Don't bust my chops, dude," he stood up and saw Janine looking over the damage. Roland's Mustang was still parked in front of the Ecto-1 with the doors still damaged, Janine's desk splintered and broken, the computer was destroyed, and the one filing cabinet was still on the ground. Dan spoke aloud, "You missed a hell of a party last night; I'm sure you saw the guests laying in the street."

Roland described what happened a little more literally, "The firehouse got attacked. Dan and Lita were being chased back here in my car; one of those creatures got inside and did all of this."

"Did anybody get hurt?" Janine asked, her question soon answered with Dan raising his hand. Dan explained, "Me and Lita were at Battery Park when they attacked. We were running to the car when she tripped and I went to pick her up. As that happened, I got tagged. I think these things were trying to grab Lita." "Are you okay?" "I'll live."

Roland looked to Dan, "Wait, what makes you think these things were after Lita?"

"If what Eduardo said was true about the claw pattern in my back, then it would make sense the way these things came at us," he walked to the driver side of the Mustang and pointed to the claw marks on the door, "One of 'em busted your driver window after latching onto the door and reached for her. Then another one crawled into the passenger side, pinned me to the seat, and also reached across for her. When Lita tripped, I was right behind her picking her up; the creature must have meant to grab her, but I got in its way causing it to misjudge distance."

Janine had picked up the grocery bag and placed it onto the hood of the Ecto-1, "Does she know about this?" Dan shook his head, "Might be a good idea we don't tell her for now. She's my responsibility; I'll handle it."

Roland sighed as he walked to the pile of equipment on the floor that spilled out of the locker and started picking up the equipment, "That wasn't even the strangest part of the assault. _We_ didn't even stop what was going on." During all of this, Janine was unpacking some of the groceries when she heard that, "What?" "Yeah. These two women came out of nowhere and threw what I can only assume is magic spells around; wiped them out fast."

"Assume?"

"They had no PKE signatures. Egon's looking into it."

Dan was starting to get a bit unnerved about the topic at hand, so he switched topics subtly noticing what Janine was removing from the bag, "Hey, is that raspberry coffee cake?" "Yeah, it is… wait a minute," she looked around the garage, "Where's Slimer? He knows every third Sunday is coffee cake day." Roland looked around the room after she mentioned it, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon."

"Aw, crap," Dan started looking around himself. He started calling, "Slimer? Slimer!" He heard some groaning coming from behind Janine's filing cabinets in Venkman's office. The three of them proceeded into the office to find Slimer hiding under the desk. His normal bright green ectoplasm was dulled and darkened as Dan knelt down to look at the little ghost, "Slimer? You okay, buddy?"

He looked weak. It looked like Slimer was very tired and sickly taking to account he was already dead. He looked very unhappy, him shaking his head weakly. Dan didn't like what he saw, "Janine brought coffee cake," he said in a friendly sing-song voice, "It's _raspberry."_ The look on Slimer's face didn't change. If anything, he looked worse after the mention of food. An alarm went off in Dan's head, "Roland, get me a meter. Something ain't right." Roland had already had a meter in the collection of equipment he picked off the floor. He handed it to Dan who proceeded to turn it on.

After a moment of pointing it toward the ghost, Dan went pail, "Oh, shit!" He looked back to Roland and Janine, "We gotta take him upstairs to Egon _right now!_"

Dan opened the door to Egon's lab as Janine walked in with Slimer in her arms, "Egon, something is wrong with…" She looked up and saw one of the creatures before her. She jumped, screamed, dropped Slimer, and grabbed Dan hard. Dan started tensing hard screaming out himself. Roland was lagging behind when he came in and saw Janine clenching onto Dan, "What?! What is it?!"

Egon turned from the examination table where the "dead" creature laid in an upward position and saw Janine holding onto Dan with a near death grip, "Janine, it's okay! The creature's rendered harmless!" Janine relaxed a bit as she looked at the scientist, placing her head into her hand, "Dear God, that thing gave me a bad start!"

Roland looked over, "Uh, Janine?"

"Yeah, Roland?"

"You _might_ wanna let Dan go." She quickly looked to Dan and saw he was turning red, a look of agony on his face. She quickly released him, "Oh, geez!" Dan fell to his knees and groaned as Janine winced, "I'm sorry! I forgot!" Slimer was still on the floor on his back. He sat up and looked at the Ghostbuster that was on all fours on the floor with him, _"You okay?"_

The whole time Dan was being held he was holding his breath. He was taking deep breaths regaining his oxygen when he looked at the ghost beside him, "I'll be okay," he took another couple of breaths as he reached a conclusion, "This is gonna be a long day for the both of us, isn't it?"

Lita, Raye, and Amy rushed into the room still in their sleeping attire, their heightened anxiety making them manic. Lita charged in first, "What's wrong? We heard screaming!" She immediately saw the creature strapped to the examination table, but she failed to notice the table as she yelled out, "Come back to finish the job, creep? You're not gonna hurt anyone else!" Egon tried to stop her, "Wait, Lita, it's not…!" Egon didn't get a chance to finish his sentence when she wound up and drop kicked the creature's corpse in the face, tearing its head off.

Roland dropped the PKE meter he had in his hand as he witnessed that. Lita was a bit surprised at how hard she kicked the Man-Bat creature. The head bounced around the lab and hit the ground right in front of Slimer. Janine was shocked at the strength, "I guess it wasn't just your handshake that was strong!" The gnarly face of the creature looked directly into the little ghost's eyes and proceeded to freak him out. He flew from the floor and zoomed toward Raye, slamming into her and gripping onto her tight giving her a hard spray of ectoplasm.

Raye screamed out in absolute terror as Slimer held onto her, "WHAT IS THIS THING?! GET IT OFF!"

Dan stood quickly as Raye screamed, "Raye, stop screaming; you're scaring Slimer!"

"This _thing_ is Slimer?!"

"Raye, calm down!" Roland attempted to speak in a soft tone of voice, "Slimer's harmless; he's a friend of the team!" Slimer was shivering as he gripped Raye's night shirt. Lita came up and started talking to him calmly and gently; her motherly air returning to her as she spoke, "I'm sorry, Slimer, I didn't know it was already dead. It's okay." Slimer looked back and saw her. The little green ghost let go of Raye and proceeded to grip onto Lita instead. He started crying hard as he gripped onto Lita. She patted the ghost on the head gently as she looked to Dan, "What's the matter with him?"

Dan's eyebrows shot up as he thought for a second, the whole encounter distracting him. His brain finally rebooted, "Dah, right! Uh…" he looked back to Roland, "The meter!" Roland actually did the same for a second as he looked around him toward the floor. Finding the meter, he bent down and grabbed it, soon after handing it to Dan. Dan walked to Egon and handed him the meter in turn, "Egon, you gotta see this! Slimer is having an issue and it's scaring me!"

Egon took the meter and looked at the data scrolling across the screen. For the first time in his life, Egon took a double-take at the meter's reading and looked at Slimer. "I'd say this is fascinating, but this is extremely alarming. Something is actively extracting Slimer's accumulated psychokinetic energy as fast as it can be produced."

"You mean," Janine asked, "something is siphoning off his energy somewhere?"

"Precisely!" Egon walked to his computer and started punching in variables, Amy walking beside him as he sat down to better type. Dan watched him work as he had a thought occurred to him, "Wait a sec, Spengs, are you saying something is drawing the energy from Slimer? Do you think that's why the PKE in the city dropped to dead standstill yesterday?" "That's entirely possible. According to the reading coming off Slimer, there's an ambient drift being drawn off his ectoplasmic signature that's heading into a predetermined direction. I'm not sure if it's related to the Symphony or not."

Amy looked over to Egon and spoke softly, "Dr. Spengler?" He looked to her and saw the look on her face. Egon knew what it was she wanted to do, but knew of the two people in the lab that was making it difficult. He looked back to Roland and Janine, "In the abandoned equipment closet by the Containment Unit, there's an aerial spectral sampler unit, and a sub-molecular analyzer. I'm going to need both."

"We don't know if any of that equipment works," Roland stated aloud, "What do we do if…"

"If you have any ideas, I give you permission to do what's necessary to get them running." Egon's statement was strange. It wasn't like him to allow Roland to tinker with old unused equipment he wasn't familiar with. Still, considering the situation, he proceeded to head out of the room with Janine in tow. Egon stopped what he was doing and watched as the both of them walked out closing the door behind them. After the door closed, he looked to Amy, "What's the trouble?"

"Well, I needed to show this to you," Amy produced her mini-computer from the pocket of her nightgown and proceeded to boot it up. Dan cocked an eyebrow, "Do you actually _sleep_ with that thing?" Amy looked to him, her blushing, answering his question quickly. Dan facepalmed himself, "Jesus, Amy; you're as bad as Roland!"

Lita had proceeded to lay Slimer in Egon's cot as Dan and Raye gathered around Amy's computer. The data scrolling across the screen was like a foreign language to the 2 Scouts and single Ghostbuster in the room, but Egon raised an eyebrow at the data, "Fascinating." Lita walked beside Amy and looked at the device herself, "What is it?"

"These readings," he took the device from Amy and got a better look at it, "they indicate that our guest here…" He stopped and looked over to his cot to see Slimer laying there with his arm draped over his eyes. He proceeded to speak again more candidly than before, "It means our guest came from _there_. That would explain the inability to cause harm to them with our Proton Packs."

"Why does that matter?" Raye asked as she took a work rag and began cleaning the slime from her pajamas, "We were going up against the Negaver…" Dan quickly cleared this throat loudly before she could finish saying the word. As he did, he pointed at Slimer, then pressed his finger to his lips indicating silence. Raye picked up on this and quickly amended herself, "...Negative effects of these things?" She finished that in a questioning tone to see where Dan was going. He nodded.

Egon had an answer, "The trouble with these creatures is that they're technically lifeforms, so their energy pattern is just outside being ectoplasmically based. Like the sub-demons in the tower, they're not as affected by our particle throwers. On top of that, their energy output is just out of phase. Physical attacks do more damage to them."

"That might explain why Slimer is sick, but these things aren't affected," Dan observed.

"Correct," Egon placed the device on his bench and started up the input into his own computer again, "With the right amount of data collection, we might be able to plot the direction the PKE is being extracted towards."

"Like we didn't have enough to do right now," Dan wiped the sweat from his forehead as he shook his head. Lita looked toward him, "Why are you even awake right now? You really need to be in bed!"

"Don't start," Dan looked to her with irritation in his voice, "our two days off just got pre-empted by a gaggle of assholes and now we have to figure out what the hell's going on."

Meanwhile, Eduardo walked into the firehouse and looked around. The equipment locker that was knocked down was back upright and he spotted Janine at her now destroyed desk picking through her computer's parts. She had just disconnected the hard drive as Eduardo approached, "Looks like you missed the fun last night."

"So I've been told." Janine sighed as she looked the hard drive over, "It looks okay. I'm gonna have to ask Roland or Dan to back up my files."

"Hey, Janine?" The Latino asked nervously, "Have you seen any of Lita's friends around?"

Janine had been removing office supplies from her busted desk, not looking at him as she answered, "Amy and Raye are in the lab…"

"Is Mina with them?"

Janine stopped and looked to him, "Why Mina specifically?"

Eduardo had this look of confusion offset by worry. It was difficult for him to start, "I-I donno!" He began to pace a bit as she stood, him attempting to explain, "When I met her two days ago, I felt something, but it was…" he shook his head and turned on his heel back toward the secretary, "And after last night…" he looked towards his arms which were front of him. He again shook his head, "Something is making me want to talk to her. It's driving me nuts!"

"Wait, this isn't like that time you liked that one girl that turned out to be a witch, is it?"

Eduardo went to speak, but fell short as he stopped to think about it a second more. He rubbed the back of his neck, "No. There's something else…"


	17. Curious Convalescence

Chapter 17: Curious Convalescence

"He is correct, unfortunately," back in the lab Egon spoke as he inputted data, "Considering our current predicament, it looks as though someone is actively targeting us to prevent us from stopping their plans. There is one thing." Dan and the girls looked to each other before he responded to the physicist's statement, "Which is?"

"You…" Egon sighed as he looked over to him, "You will have to stay behind." Dan's eyes shot open and was about to protest when Egon cut him off, "Daniel, the shock has worn off on your injuries; placing a 100 pound accelerator onto your wounds will only slow you down. Worse yet, you now have a vulnerability the creatures can exploit. The best that can be done is you assisting me in finding a weakness in these creatures and maybe finding where all this PKE is going."

"Oh, that's bullshit!" Dan was clearly upset at the decision, "Egon, if I'm not out there, I'm clueless! I have to be out there to understand what's going on!" As Dan stood defiant, Lita approached him and held his arm, "He's right, Dan. You go out there in your condition…"

"Unless you miraculously healed, there's no way in good conscience I'd let you out of this building," Egon finally turned away from his computer, it now running a plotting routine as he addressed his field operative, Dan looking distressed as he concluded, "we still don't even know the extent of damage you sustained from what it was that nearly poisoned you last night."

Dan grunted in frustration, "Great! The world is falling apart - literally - and I'm practically sidelined. Fuck my life!" He was worried. The feeling of urgency elevated to a point where his anger was losing restraint. Lita sensed this and held onto his arm tighter, "It's okay, I'm sure we can handle what's going on without you," she turned to her fellow Sailor Scouts, "Right?"

Both women nodded their heads, Amy adding, "After all, we have experience with some of these matters."

"I'm not so sure," Dan looked to the floor, "Another Draugr may show up rendering you powerless, and our packs are useless against those…" Dan proceeded to mouth the word, "Negaverse" so as Slimer couldn't hear it, "...creatures, so we're in trouble unless I'm there with you. I'm the bridge between the groups."

Raye shook her head as she spoke, "You need to stop putting yourself in harm's way. Besides, we can talk to the team and…"

"That would be unwise," Egon turned in his chair toward her, "if you do that, the cohesion of the team will dissolve, Dan being confrontational with the team as it stands. You saw how they reacted to last night." Just as Raye began nodding her head, the lab door opened allowing Eduardo in. He stopped short as he noticed how many people were in the room, "Oh, uh… was I interrupting something?" He took notice of the three women in their attire, "What's with the slumber party?" As he walked he tripped over the head of the creature on the floor. After regaining his balance, he looked down and saw the creature's head at his feet.

"YAH!" Eduardo jumped from his position and into Dan's arms like Scooby-Doo into Shaggy's. This surprised everyone, but no one more than Dan who yelped holding the man in his arms. Again, Egon stood as he explained, "It's okay, Eduardo. It's harmless." Eduardo looked down, then looked back to the room around him to see the sea of faces looking at his ridiculous reaction. He smiled sheepishly, "Hehe, I-I knew that!"

Under strain, Dan asked the man in his arms, "Hey Eddie, do you know how Newton demonstrated gravity?" "Uh, no. How?" Egon and Amy winced as they knew the answer…

Dan dropped him to the floor.

Eduardo looked up from the floor, none too thrilled about what just happened, "Hey, man!"

By this time Dan had doubled over in pain again, "Don't! You nearly made me pull my stitches!" Eduardo pulled himself to his feet, "Hey, it scared the hell outta me, man! How did its head end up on the floor anyway?" Lita blushed as that question was asked.

Egon approached him, "Is there something I can help you with, Eduardo?"

"Well, not so much you as…" Eduardo looked a bit uncomfortable, "it's more like I need to talk to one of you," he motioned toward the girls. Dan had stood straight, "Why, what's up?" "Something… _happened_… last night after I got home. I couldn't sleep and…" he turned to Dan, "I-I can't explain it!"

The distress washing over Eduardo's face was off-putting. It was as though he had seen the same expression in the mirror some mornings. Dan became concerned, "Eddie, are you okay? You haven't been yourself the last couple of days."

"I guess so, but," Eduardo shook his head in a confused fashion as he looked back to Lita, Raye, and Amy, "I really need to ask you guys a favor." Egon also looked to the girls in the lab, "The ball is in your court, as they say." Amy spoke up, "If you allow us to finish up here, we'll talk. Okay?" Eduardo nodded. Raye and Lita looked to each other and noticed how nervous he was. Lita put her eyes on Dan and conveyed something to him.

Dan picked up on the vibe and nodded. "Eddie, don't forget, me and Egon are here, too. If there's anything you need," Dan reached his hand out. Eduardo took the man's hand to shake…

Dan collapsed right there.

He nearly fell to his knees when Eduardo reacted quickly and grabbed him from under his arms. Lita jumped and ran to his side and helped Eduardo lift him. After a couple of seconds, Dan came to, "Whoa. What the hell just happened?"

"That's it," Egon growled, "put him in bed and keep him there! If you have to restrain him, do it!" The two of them escorted Dan out of the room. Soon after, Egon grunted as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He was radiating frustration as he tried to calm down. It was a poor effort, "This team is starting to aggravate me. Garrett being confrontational with Dan is bad enough, but now Dan refusing to obey orders…"

"Egon, you can't fault them; either of them." Egon stopped rubbing his eyes and looked to Raye. Her tone of voice inflected a sense of understanding of the situation, "Dan's terrified. He not only has Lita to look after, but the team, _us_… he has a lot on his mind. If he only knew what happened that day with Garrett and how he felt…"

"I know," Egon placed his glasses on his nose as he attempted harder to suppress his aggravation, "you explained as much last night. To my understating, that was a rough night for the team in general. Nevertheless, the matter of Dan's negligence of his own health has to be mitigated, or else he'll end up killing himself."

Raye didn't like the tone of Egon's voice. She had only been in New York for a couple of days thus far, and now she's seeing what has been going on with the team. A great deal of stress amongst the team laid between Dan and Garrett, and it wasn't reciprocal. She had always known Dan was… angry. But, if she knew Lita as well as she did, the anger she felt was always from witnessing an injustice and refusing to stay sidelined as the problem persisted. Dan's anger, Raye felt, manifested the same way for the same reason. Lita knew how to control her anger, but would act on it because she believed she was right in doing so. Dan was the same.

Then there was Garrett. Almost all of the rage between the two was from Garrett, and Garrett felt in the right to be angry. Knowing how Dan was, she knew Dan took it as a personal flaw and tried to correct what he had done wrong, but Garrett didn't believe in him causing Dan to try fixing a problem that would never fix.

How did Raye know this? It was a question that was on her mind since last night. She had always had a psychic sense; she could see the future, feel some people's feelings, and even sense evil, but what had happened with Garrett was strong. Too strong. She saw the incident in the restaurant through his eyes, and she didn't understand why.

Still, if Dan's health is on the line, she knows where the problem laid. She needed to have a talk with someone as stubborn as her, and she was dreading having to do it, "Egon? You think Janine can help me with something?"

Lita and Eduardo stepped out of the bunk room, Lita closing it behind her. She felt very tense about everything going on to the point she held onto the door. Eduardo turned to her and watched as she did so, "Hey, Dan'll be okay. I've seen him crash through walls and take proton blasts to the chest; he's a tough _hombre_, if I've ever seen one. _Loco_, but what ya gonna do?"

"Eduardo, what do you think of me?" Eduardo cocked an eyebrow at the question. Knowing she was close to Dan, he wasn't sure how to answer without doing or saying something stupid. He needed clarification, "In what way?"

"If you had been dating me, would there be something you…" She sighed. She wasn't sure how to say it, "Is there something wrong with me where you'd not want to be by me?"

"If ya wanna ask if Dan cares about you, I've never seen him so…"

She turned from the door and looked him in the eyes, an odd mix of worry and anger in her eyes, "I'm asking _you!_ What do _you_ think of me?!" She grabbed him by his jacket and started shaking him with vigor, "What kind of a person am I to you? Would you be humiliated to be with me?!" Eduardo grabbed her hands and pried himself loose from her, finding it more difficult to do than he figured. Once he came loose, he threw her hands off him, "Will you stop that?! My God, first I gotta deal with Dan and his emotional bullshit, and now you're going whacko?"

That jarred Lita out of her state as she realized what she was doing. Eduardo continued, "I don't know what the hell changed in you, but you've been Looney for the last two days leading into last night. Whatever is going on between you two, _you_ need to talk about it!" He turned and headed back toward Egon's lab, "I'm tired of being in between everyone's issues. I got my own family I have to do that with. Jesus Christ!" After walking through the lab's door, he slammed the door behind him causing her to flinch.

The fuse - it seems - is almost burned up.

12:25 PM

Lita sat in a chair by the bunk room window, peering out as she did. For hours she pondered what it was she was feeling. Last night, Dan expressed his feelings and she felt how much he loved her, but there was something that troubled her about his words. Not words from last night, but the morning before. She was becoming obsessed with what she heard. Eduardo knew, but wasn't talking. Something was wrong.

"Ugh, what a fucking nightmare." Lita looked over and saw that Dan was sitting up in his bunk, legs already swung to the side. He had his head in his hand wiping the sweat from his forehead. Lita stood and approached him as he looked up, "How long was I out?"

She was hesitant, but she did answer, "Half the day. It's past noon." Dan flexed his shoulders, annoyed, "Great." He kept flexing his shoulders as though something was bothering him, "Lita, can you help me with these bandages? They're itching like a mother and I donno why."

She felt guilty about what she had been thinking. He may have been embarrassed, but she loved him. Even in her guilt, she tried to be good to him. He can be redeemed: she knew him well enough. At least she though…

Dan pulled up the back of his tee-shirt exposing the taped gauze Amy had secured the night before. Lita sat behind him on his bunk and looked the taped pieces over, "Are you sure I should be touching this? It's been less than 12 hours."

"I donno if it's the fact it's healing, I'm getting an infection, or I'm growing a second ass because of the slime Egon found, but it's driving me nuts! _Please, _check it?" Lita nodded, then cocked an eyebrow, "Second ass?" "Okay, so," he responded in a still sleepy state, "I watch a lot of South Park. Sue me. Stranger things have happened to me."

She couldn't help but smirk, "I can believe it." She began peeling the tape off revealing his stitches…

She became pail as she saw what happened to the wounds. She started to gasp. Dan heard this and became nervous, "What? _What?_!"

"Just wait, I gotta get Egon and Amy! Don't panic!" She stood to run to the lab. Dan yelled after her, "If you wanna have someone not panic, _don't tell them to not panic!_ Good GOD!" After a moment, Dan began talking to himself, "It's another ass. I'm gonna be some kind of experiment. I'm gonna get Egon back into MENSA with my second ass. Fuck me sideways!"

The three of them came in again and rounded his bunk to look at the wounds. Lita spoke up first, "See? What happened?"

Dan had known Egon for many years, and in all that time he had never heard the man say anything unsavory. Peter had once said Egon swore one time shortly after the original Containment Unit exploded and one of Gozer's minions escaped his care.

Alas, "Holy shit!"

That did _nooooot_ sit well with Dan. "What? What's wrong?" "You know how I told you you're unfit for field work until your wounds healed?" "Oh, God, did they get worse?" Dan started to panic, "am I never gonna do field work again?"

"You're fit for duty."

Dan turned slowly to Egon, "...Say what?" Dan stood up and opened the closet door revealing a full body mirror. He looked at his back…

There wasn't so much as a scar. He looked to Egon, Amy, and Lita putting his shirt down, "How?" Egon took a PKE meter out and checked Dan over. It was negative, "That's impossible! There's nothing indicating…" the scientist was without words.

Just to satisfy her curiosity, Amy opened her minicomputer and began scanning Dan. It beeped indicating a completed scan. The results baffled her, "Dr. Spengler, something _is_ present, but it doesn't make sense!" Egon cocked an eyebrow, "What about it confuses you?" She handed the device to him allowing him to see. He then looked to his PKE meter in the other hand. A look of eureka graced his face, "Of course! I programmed out the Scouts energy signatures from our current meters!" The look suddenly left his face and he became confused again, "What a minute…"

Lita was also lost, "What does our energy... _whatever_… have to do with this?"

"Dan has a signature on him that has a residual reading that matches Sailor Venus's," Amy took back the computer from Egon and started running a calculation on the reading, "According to the decay rate of the energy signature, you were exposed to it approximately five hours ago."

Dan blinked. Actually, it was more of a twitch, "What happened five hours ago? Mina wasn't here."

Lita spoke up helping him fill in the blanks, "All I know was we were in the lab, Eduardo shook your hand, and then… You…" Lita suddenly had a thought cross her mind, "Dan, do you remember what you told me that night in the tower about the Knights? Their incognito powers?"

Dan wasn't sure where she was going with this, "What about 'em?" "What were they again?" "Well, mine is electromagnetism; Mercury Knight can perform flash-freezing; Mars Knight can instantly ignite fires; Venus Knight can…" he nearly choked as he realized what happened.

"What?" Egon saw the deathly look of knowing what had happened and it laid in Dan's knowledge. Egon didn't know everything about the Solar Knights, even with Dan telling him what he knew to an extent.

"Dan," Lita said softly, "you're not thinking…" Dan nodded his head. He then looked to Egon, "Sailor Venus's signature is extremely close to her Knight's. Her Knight shares in her power, which is why the meters have never detected him."

Egon's eyes widened behind his glasses, "Detected him? Are you saying…?"

"Venus Knight's incognito power is to heal. He is the only one that can heal outside of his princess. Egon, there is only one conclusion we can draw here." "You can't possibly suggest…" "I am," Dan drew a deep breath…

"Eduardo Rivera is Venus Knight."


	18. Hot Head, Heavy Heart, Cold Shoulder

Chapter 18: Hot Head, Heavy Heart, Cold Shoulder

Sunday June 29th, 2002

Squibb Park, Brooklyn Heights

11:25 AM

The long bridge leading to the park had been barred, damage noticeable to even the blind. After the earthquake and the creature attacks, the city's Parks and Recreations department closed all public spaces and closed the bridge due to the extensive damage. That didn't stop some people from heading to said parks.

Alone on the open basketball court, Garrett was dressed in his basketball garb making layups and shooting baskets. There was no one around, but he spoke aloud, "I don't get this. All I'm doing is calling out Shannon's track record. Why am I in the wrong? Yeah, he almost died, but..." He shot a basket and made it in, barely. He retrieved the ball and started dribbling and wheeling himself around the court, "How the hell did she know? And why can't I get her out of my head?"

Along the Brooklyn-Squibb bridge, Raye had stopped as she saw a breathtaking view - Manhattan. She looked further out from the East River and saw Liberty Island just off the bay past the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a unique sight for the Japanese woman as she looked to the horizon. She sighed, "I bet this place is beautiful in the fall." It almost reminded her of home, if only it was more rustic. She continued on her way toward the park.

"If she knows about the diner, she knows about my…" Garrett grunted as he took the ball and threw it like a baseball at the basket, it bouncing off the rim and flying off in an odd direction. He didn't watch where it went. He gripped the wheels of his chair and gripped them until his knuckles turned white, "...How the hell does she know about it?"

"I'm psychic." Garrett's attention instantly snapped toward the gated entrance to the court to find Raye standing there, his basketball in her hands. The surprise in his voice matched the look on his face, "Raye? How'd you know I was here?"

"Well, I had to use my little fire pit…" Garrett winced at that; the words being the ones he let spill from his mouth in rage the night before. Raye giggled a bit, "...Okay, I'm not _that_ good. I asked Janine for your address, and your mom told me you were here. Rather brave of you, considering."

Garrett rolled toward her and gently took his ball back, "These winged nasties don't scare me. Neither does the supposed condition of the Squibb bridge." She watched as he rolled around the court a short stint and shot for the basket when she chimed in, "You seemed pretty worried when that creature was about to attack me and Amy." He hit the backboard, but the ball missed the net. Garrett stopped and sighed, "That's different. I don't like seeing people get hurt, unlike some people."

Raye had just scooped up the ball as she stood back up, "You're still on about Dan? How can you say that about him?" "Why does everyone keep asking that question? I can say it because if it weren't for him…"

"You'd be dead!" Garrett took a hard double take as he looked to her, "What?" "I talked to Egon last night after you were told to leave. I asked him about the restaurant fire and he told me Dan ran into it to retrieve you when you didn't show up outside. He almost died when a rotten part of the building almost crushed the two of you as he was carrying you out."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. For over 2 years solid, Garrett never knew Dan was the one that saved his life. It almost made him feel guilty for how he treated Dan this whole time. Almost. Still, there was something that was inexcusable, "Did Egon mention Dan started that fire?" He looked to her. Raye shook her head as a look of disbelief graced her face. Garrett spoke harshly as he approached her again and took his ball, "He wouldn't have had to save me if he didn't put me in that position. If he'd attempted to fire that pack with an actual degree of accuracy, he'd never of hit that gas pipe."

He backed up away from her and turned his back to her as he concluded, "As far as I'm concerned, he's still a menace. If it happened to me, it'll happen again, and next time, the person he endangers won't be so lucky. That's just not good enough."

"I get it; you're claustrophobic." Garrett suddenly tensed up, but Raye wasn't having it this time, "I don't know _why_ I can sense that from you, but I don't even want to hear you yell about it! Dan didn't shove you into that fridge, so you need to get right the hell over it! Just because you felt your worst fear doesn't give you the right to take it out on your leader!"

"That's cute!" He turned on his wheels to face her, "This coming from someone who criticizes Sailor Moon on the daily? You're one to talk!"

What did Garrett just say?

Raye's eyes were as wide as saucers as Garrett looked away confused, "Wait, who the hell's Sailor Moon? Sailor Mars…" he suddenly gripped the side of his head, "What the…? Wait… last night?" He looked back to her, dropping his ball, "Who the hell are you?"

Raye was terrified. She started backing away from the man and toward the court gate as a terrible chill shot up her spine. She bumped into the opening of the gate before turning and running away. "Wait, Raye!" He began pursuing her.

Raye ran to the bridge and began following it back to the Brooklyn Promenade as fast as she could. There was no logic to her thoughts. All she felt was panic. How did he put it together? How did he know who Sailor Moon was? Did he know _she_ was Sailor Mars? How? Why?

In one of the spots along the bridge where there was damage from the earthquake, there were orange cones marking its location. Raye didn't even notice it. Under the wood plank bridge, a rusted out support for the bridge started to crumble. The crack in the beam widened as Raye ran toward it, her footfalls shaking the support further. Other supports started to give way…

Raye ran right on top of it.

The section of bridge she ran onto separated from the other still stable pieces and started to slide downward. She stopped as she tried to keep her balance, but lost it hitting the planks under her feet. The section began to tilt toward the ground as she tried to stand again. She saw the ground far below her and screamed.

Garrett came racing toward the damaged section of bridge when he saw Raye holding onto the handrail trying to stand. Seeing what laid before him he started pushing his wheels harder, picking up speed. He hit the end of the still standing section of bridge and hit the tilted planks of the falling section still at speed. He quickly aimed for Raye and knocked her into his lap.

He kept pushing forward up the ever inclining section of bridge that was sliding toward the ground below. Raye wrapped her arms around his neck as he yelled out, "This is gonna be rough! Hang on!" As she held on, something caught her eye. On Garrett's chest. It was there for a brief moment…

The wheelchair flew off the edge of the collapsing bridge section. Garrett threw the chair from under him and wrapped his arms around Raye. The two of them embraced each other as their eyes made contact. It was like slow motion; time moved slowly as Raye's violet eyes looked into Garrett's steely blues. It was…

The two of them collided into the still standing section of the bridge. They rolled a few feet before stopping. The section of bridge crashed into the park below sending up a cloud of dust in its wake. Raye and Garrett pushed themselves up and saw the dust billow into the air. The both of them panted heavily as they looked to the destruction, "This is what happens when you go with the lowest bidder," Garrett joked, "New York: Bastion of Capitalism!" He looked to Raye who was still looking at the dust plume, "Hey, you okay, Firecracker?"

Raye backed up and stood. She resisted her urge to run again as she looked at him, "W-why did you save me?" Garrett sat up and looked to her confused, "What ya mean? I wasn't gonna just let you…"

"I felt it from you last night, too! When me and Amy were on the staircase. It was…"

"Overwhelming," Garrett finished her sentence. He nodded, "There was something about you. I knew it as soon as I rolled out of the Ecto. I'll ask again: who are you?"

Raye backed up further. She looked to the open path of the bridge and back again, "Tonight. Come to your headquarters tonight," the look of fright was still on her face as she started to hear police sirens approach, most likely in response to the bridge collapse. She shook her head, "Please, don't be angry." With that, Raye turned and ran, leaving Garrett alone on the bridge.

Garrett sighed as the woman's long raven hair blew into the wind, the sight of her becoming more distant. Coming back to his situation, the police sirens getting louder, he looked around, "Whelp, that chair ain't gonna retrieve itself."

Eduardo's Apartment

12:40 PM

Eduardo stood in front of his bathroom mirror, hands on the sides of the sink, and his head down. He stood there trying to get himself composed, but he found himself shaking. In the living room atop his coffee table was a small piece of stationary with an address written in Raye's handwriting. It was the hotel address Serena, Darien, and Mina were staying.

"Okay, Eduardo, get it together this time. You're a Rivera; you are _charm_. Focus!" Eduardo took in a deep breath then looked at the mirror. He straightened up and attempted to turn on his charisma as he slowly exhaled, "Mina…"

_Knock knock knock!_ His thought was interrupted with knocking on his door. He closed his eyes and grunted, "Son-of-a… Who is it?"

"Uncle Eduardo? It's Kevin! Can I talk to you?" The teen's voice was muffled as he spoke through the door. Whatever Eduardo was doing suddenly left his attention as he turned and headed through his apartment to the door. He opened up and found Kevin standing on the landing. Kevin looked to him as Eduardo asked, "Hey, _chico_, what's the matter?"

"Can I come in?" Kevin had a look of confliction on his face.

Inside the two of them sat down, Kevin on the couch, and Eduardo on the coffee table across from him, "What's bothering ya, Kev?" "Well, it's… uh…" Kevin was having a hard time starting his thought. After a moment, he managed to start, "Have you ever done something you know someone else would think is bad, but you ended up too deep, and now you want to tell someone else, but…" Kevin's eyes started shifting around as he spoke. Eduardo saw this, his eyes getting wide, "Kevin, _please_ tell me you didn't join a gang!"

Kevin immediately looked up, "No! Nonono, its nothing like that! Well, not exactly."

Eduardo put his hands on his nephew's shoulders, "What do you _mean_ not exactly? You're not doing drugs, or anything, are you?"

"No!" Kevin raised his voice, the teen clearly losing his patience, "Manny asked me to be a part of something with him, and I'm not sure if I should do it."

"With Manny?" Eduardo looked a bit perplexed at him, "Why you worried about doing something with Manny?"

"I'm afraid of what dad would say." Eduardo heard that and rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't worry about your dad. As far as I'm concerned, you've been old enough to make your own decisions for a while now. Besides, I don't see why he'd have a problem if it was Manny asking you."

Kevin wasn't giving the full detail. There was almost a tick appearing on the kid's face as he took in his uncle's advice. Eduardo took it as a sign, "You're afraid to ask him?" The teenager nodded his head as he averted his eyes. Eduardo sighed, "Carlos - your dad - had told me Manny was one of the best partners he's ever had. He trusts him. If you tell him, I can promise he'll approve of it."

"Are… are you sure? He was pretty mad at me a few weeks ago." How could Eduardo forget? Not only was Carl trying to go for Kevin which didn't sit well with him and Beth, but also Dan. He heard Carl rip into Dan basically calling him a failure and a loser. Eduardo has said things about Dan to his family that gave the wrong impression of him. After all, Dan had saved his life while they were stuck outside their own time with that broken DeLorean time machine. How most of the others treated him was unfair and in some cases unwarranted. Now knowing of Lita proved he was reserved, but that clearly didn't translate to his brother very well, let alone to the team.

"Look, Kev, your dad has a lot of demons in his closet he hasn't told you, at least as far as I know. His hang-ups are because of him, not you. You're a good kid, and you have always meant well. You have his confidence more than you know, but you have to talk with him," he patted him on the shoulder, "Okay, kiddo?"

Kevin scooted closer to Eduardo and hugged him. This was odd, Eduardo thought. Going into his teen years, Kevin was trying to be more manly and was almost refusing to hug any male member of his family. Eduardo's vague psychological training was gnawing at him, but it might have been a case of being over-worried about the situation. They stood up and Kevin walked to the door. He opened it before he stopped, "Uncle Eduardo?"

"Yeah, Kev?"

"Do… You guys know what's been going on? I mean, where these creatures are coming from?" Eduardo heard the fear in his nephew's voice. Eduardo sighed, "You know I can't tell you that. It's bad enough Dan got hurt last night, but…"

"Dan got hurt?" Eduardo heard Kevin parroted his words and immediately slapped his hand over his mouth. Kevin turned away from the door, "Not Dan! What happened?" Eduardo removed his hand and winced in pain. Cat was out of the bag, he figured, "Him and Lita were on a date in Roland's car. They got attacked at the park by the firehouse."

"Who's Lita?"

"Right, you haven't met her yet. She's Dan's girlfriend from Tokyo. She's like, a Martial Arts expert, or something. Wouldn't wanna tick that woman off." He looked back to Kevin and saw that look again. It was conflicted, "Kevin?"

"It's nothing. Just a little worried," he opened the door back up and began to walk out again, "I'll talk to ya later, Uncle Eduardo." With that, the door closed behind the teen. Something about the conversation didn't sit right.

Outside at the end of the staircase going to Eduardo's apartment was a backpack and a duffle bag. Kevin reached the stairs bottom and grabbed both items. He opened the duffle bag, pulled out a flip phone, and started dialing a number. Putting the call through, he put it to his ear. After a moment, he spoke, "Yeah, I'm here. I'm ready."

Ghostbusters HQ

1:42 PM

Roland had been in the basement for 6 hours now repairing and enhancing the two pieces of equipment Egon had sent him for. It looked like some of the parts had been cannibalized from the devices and he was having a time trying to find replacements. Needless to say, after this many hours he was beginning to become frustrated.

A lot of problems had arisen in the last month, but things got to their worst in the last 2 weeks. Now with parts of the firehouse in need of repair as well as his Mustang, the whole situation was getting out of hand. The creatures refusing to go down with the Proton Packs and them nearly overwhelming the team last night…

There was some comfort. The two women who helped them last night truly confused him, especially with Kylie stating they had no PKE readings, but at the least they bought time for him, Dan, and Egon to change the pack's settings to be effective. Still, who they were and why they couldn't be metered… Was it some kind of tech? It made no sense how the one woman threw fire, and the other threw ice. The woman in blue. It was gnawing at the back of his mind…

The basement door opened and Amy came in proceeding to walk down the stairs. She saw Roland at the workbench opposite from the large metal device called the Containment Unit on the other side of the room, him with safety glasses over his eyes, a screwdriver between his teeth, and a schematic diagram in his hands. As she walked down, she noticed a very odd chill.

Roland took notice of the footfalls on the metal stairs and turned his attention toward her. He took the screwdriver from his mouth, "Amy? Uh, what brings you down here?"

"Well, you've been down here for a while, so I came to see if you were okay," she approached the bench while looking behind her. The sight of the Containment Unit was very awe inspiring, but there was a great deal of menace about the device. She pointed to it as she looked at Roland, "Is that the Containment system?"

Roland lifted his safety glasses after dropping the schematic in his hand, "The one and only. I have to admit, I never thought I'd see it, let alone work on it."

"I never got to see the portable unit Dr. Spengler and the others installed while in Tokyo. They'd been there so many times, they decided to leave one there. To my understanding, they never activated it and whatever was captured just came straight back here."

Roland lowered his glasses and picked up the schematic again, "I wouldn't know anything about that. But, if you wanna have me explain its operation…"

"You use an interspacial laser assembly which generates a negatively charged ion field that compresses ectoplasmic entities into a pan-dimensional suppression field. This creates an artificial, 'Ghost Dimension' inside the unit housing."

Roland's eyes went wide as he took off the glasses and stood, his mouth agape, "Huh? That was my theory on how… How did you…?"

"I spoke with Dr. Spengler for years. I have a tendency to ask technical questions."

"But… that's word-for-word how I would describe it!" Amy watched as the man before her seemed to look overwhelmed with a task he felt was urgent. Amy knew that maybe he shouldn't still try to work on the devices, knowing he was only put to task to get him out of the room. Still, from the description of the devices, they could be useful. Still, Janine had stated that he went down and hasn't come back up at all, so…

"Roland, maybe you should take a break. It sounds like you've been working on these problems for too long." "I can't. Egon and the team are depending on me! The city…!" "And your family?" Roland stopped short. He stood silent for a minute as he put his hands to his hips and looked at the work bench. He nodded, "Yeah," he sighed as he looked toward her, "I have brothers and sisters I'm watching out for. I don't want to fail my family; I don't want to see them hurt."

He felt her sympathy. He looked up to her and saw that she had a look that spoke levels of understanding, and that maybe somewhere she felt the same. She sighed, smiling a bit as she did, "Come on, we need to get out of here. You need time to think."

Amy stood outside of the firehouse and looked around. Remanence of the creatures that attacked last night were still in the street as neighborhood locals sprayed the pieces into storm drains with hoses. The smell was none too appealing in the summer heat.

Roland stepped out of the building a moment later dressed in his Ghostbuster uniform and wearing the experimental Psychonetic Pulse-Rail on a rifle sling over his shoulder. She peered over and saw the device's menacing appearance, "What in heaven's name is that?"

"It's a new piece of equipment me and Dan constructed," he explained as the two of them began to walk, "I don't like that the packs are useless, and I am _not_ walking around out here without something to protect myself, let alone one of Egon's friends."

"I'm your friend, too," Amy peered around taking in the neighborhood, "At least, I'd like to be."

They walked for some time, getting a rather good distance away from the firehouse. The idea of this woman being friends with Egon, well, didn't sit right with Roland, "There's something that's been bothering me about your friendship with the Original Ghostbusters. How did all of you meet? Kylie's told me how Dan and Lita met, but how did the rest of you?" Amy's eyes stopped looking around the area and she turned her attention to the ground. Through all of it, this new team of Ghostbusters had yet to ask that question, and it never occured to Amy or any of the Scouts to have an explanation ready.

She did what she could do in this situation: tell the truth, if only omitting parts, "Shortly after Dan and Lita met, Lita, Serena, and myself walked to Raye's family shrine nearby the park. Lita was having some trouble with something and Raye wanted to talk about it when we heard screaming."

"Oh, right," a look of bemusement came across Roland's face, the two of them rounding the corner, "Dan crashed into the roof, and Ray ended up in a tree."

"You know?"

"It is in the caselogs. What I'm confused at is how you all ended up in Starlight Tower? All of you kept mentioning being in the tower with the Originals."

That was when Amy realized the gap in the story. She stopped walking and began to blush, Roland stopping after. She couldn't think of anything except for the truth. She was hesitant, "I'm not entirely sure how to explain that. In truth, we _were _involved, but how is…"

THUD! The ground shook interrupting her train of thought. THUD! The two of them as well as the other people in the neighborhood looked around, Roland speaking up, "What is that? It's not another earthquake, is it?" THUD! "No," Amy replied, "earthquakes don't start this way. Those are impact tremors!" Amy started to hear something in the distance. It was faint, but it was getting louder in between the thuds on the ground, "What's that noise?" Roland started hearing it too as the two of them turned toward it.

About a block away came a sea of people screaming and running toward them, rounding a corner as they fled. Roland put his head into his hand, "Of course." The people passed them on the street as they looked toward the intersection where the people fled and saw the object of their terror. A large, gray, hulking mass carrying a mace…

It was another Draugr.

**A/N: As some of have noticed, chapter posting has been down for the last 2-3 months. As of this moment with Covid-19 effecting everything, I have been the able body in the family to take care of everyone during quarantine, and it has barely left me time to write. I hope you all understand and bare with me as I take care of family through all of this.**


	19. Tribeca Turmoil

Chapter 19: Tribeca Turmoil

Luna and Artemis were walking around the neighborhood around the Ghostbusters headquarters getting more of a feel for the land. In the few days the two cat guardians have been in New York, they've come to learn the major American city was dirty, rude, and dangerous. Luna specifically was thrown off, "How can Americans live in such a place?"

Artemis, on the contrary, was more accustomed, "Eh, it's their way. Britain wasn't that much different. London was especially bad when it rained, which was all the time."

"That's right," Luna watched as Artemis jumped onto a garbage can in the alley to get a better vantage point, "I forgot you discovered Mina when she was living in London. It was so long ago." A solemn look appeared on her face as she sat and looked down, a sigh escaping her whiskers. Artemis looked down to her, "What's the matter?"

"I've been thinking about our conversation from last night," she looked up at him once again, "How is it Darien has the sense the Solar Knights are here? I remember we barely sensed Dan being Jupiter Knight; it didn't feel like when we discovered the Scouts."

Artemis sat atop the can and gave it a moment, "You know, I never gave it much thought, but do you remember what Lita told us after the Ghostbusters left? She said Darien was the one…"

THUD! The can he was on shook and began falling over. He attempted to jump down as the can toppled, but slipped and landed face first into the ground. Luna jumped out of the way of the can and just barely witnessed the white cat hitting the ground with all the grace of Curly Howard. "Seriously, Artemis, you're a cat. Could at least _attempt_ to land on your feet?"

Artemis picked himself up and shook his head, "What was _that_?" THUD! Both cats - now on ground-level - felt the vibration under their feet, and they were getting more intense with each vibration. A smell was also beginning to encroach the area; the rancid smell of death. More and more a noise started to emanate down the street as the thuds grew closer. The cats reached the end of the alley and looked to the noise, Luna's voice denoting worry, "What's happening?"

A flood of people started rushing around the corner as it was apparent the noise was the collective screams of the citizenry of Manhattan Island. The people scrambled over cars, and in some cases each other as they rushed away from the street they were on. "My God, Luna, they're terrified!" Artemis's mouth hung open at the sheer horror on everyone's face.

Luna looked toward the street they were running from and saw why, "And it's no wonder! Look at what they're running from!" Artemis looked toward where she was looking and found a 25 foot tall human form walking down the street. It had a long white handlebar moustache, no hair on its head, was wearing Norse armor, and carrying a large mace. Its skin was gray and flaking, its eyes sunken in and black.

The cats nearly gagged as the full force of the scent it gave off hit them. Artemis covered his nose with his paw, "Aw, Nelly! Talk about low tide!"

"This is terrible!" Luna watched as the people fled down the street, "We have to tell the Scouts so they can warn the Ghostbusters!" Artemis went to look at her when something caught his eye. His eyes went wide as he removed the paw from his nose, "Luna, that won't be necessary, but I can't say it's a good thing!" She looked at him perplexed but then noticed where he was looking. She turned to find a familiar blue-haired woman standing beside a tall black man with a familiar red and white symbol on his arm amongst the crowd.

Luna could only reply, "Oh, this can only lead to trouble!"

Roland took the railgun off his shoulder and began firing it up, "I'm going to try holding it off!" He began flipping switches and turning dials as he gave Amy instruction, "Get back to the firehouse and have Egon recall everyone!"

"Roland," Amy had a twinge of fear in her voice, "you said yourself that weapon is experimental! Are you sure it'll work?" Roland stopped what he was doing and looked at her, "I didn't say it was experimental, I just said it was new. How did you know that?" Amy stood frozen for a moment as she had no answer. Roland shook his head coming back to the situation, "Doesn't matter! Go and warn Egon!"

Amy nodded. She didn't like what she was doing, but there was an overwhelming urge to listen to him. It also opened the opportunity to assist in another way. She began running with the crowd away from the creature and the lone Ghostbuster taking a stand. As soon as she was far enough away, she found a secluded alleyway and ducked off. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her communicator…

Dan was still in the bunk room. He sat at his computer desk looking at the binder of letters he saved from his time corresponding to Lita. Something was off about how Lita was the last few days. The more he looked at the letters, the more guilty he felt. He looked at her older photos…

There was a beeping that stirred in the room. Dan looked around and tried to figure out where it was coming from when he looked to Lita's luggage. He quickly walked to the bag, opened it, and found her Scout communicator. He activated it and spoke, "Weapons Lab; chief pyro speaking."

_"Dan?"_ He heard Amy's voice come over as her face appeared in the corner of the device, _"Where's Lita?"_ "She's in Egon's Lab," he noticed the worry on her face, "Why? What's wrong?"

Egon opened the bunk room door and stepped in, Lita behind him, "Dan, we just got a flurry of calls. We have another Draugr." Dan went pale.

Amy heard this over the communicator, _"That's not all! Dr. Spengler, it's heading toward your headquarters! It's on Greenwich Avenue heading south!"_ By this time Egon and Lita approached as Dan asked, "How far away is it?" _"Four blocks. That's not the worst of it."_ Egon, Dan, and Lita exchanged looks then looked back to the communicator as Lita spoke up, "What is it?"

_"Roland was with me. He's still out here alone! I'm going to have to help!" _Dan's eyes widened, "Alone?" "What do you mean help?" Egon asked. That was when he realized, "You don't mean…" _"Yes. You're going to have to get here as soon as you can! Amy out!" _The communicator went black.

Lita grabbed the device from Dan and tried to talk to her, "Wait Amy, our powers don't work on ectoplasmic monsters! Amy? Amy!" It was too late. Dan and Lita turned to Egon. Egon noticed the eyes, "We're going to have to go it alone. We can only hope Amy's powers are more effective in slowing the Draugr down."

Amy placed the communicator in her pocket and retrieved her transformation wand. She looked at the wand and sighed, "I hope Roland doesn't shoot me. Mercury Star Power!"

Roland had ducked behind a mailbox waiting for the creature to approach. His back was against the box as he was sweating bullets. He was nervous. _Very_ nervous. He didn't think to grab a Proton Pack due to them being ineffective against the Man-Bat creatures, but this was the last thing he expected to come walking down the street.

He held the railgun close to him as he felt the tremors approach closer. This thing was too close to the firehouse for comfort. With Dan being injured, and Kylie, Eduardo, and Garrett not at the firehouse, the only able bodied ones to make it back quickly was Egon and Lita, and even then he had doubts; Egon having difficulty performing field work as he used to, and Lita still being green, Roland was feeling he had to work it alone.

_"I smell flesh!"_ The Nortic accent of the creature echoed off the nearby buildings as the strongest tremor Roland felt yet came from just behind him, "I wish I brought my radio."

The creak and crunch of metal was heard as the mailbox was torn from its position out of the ground. Roland felt the crumbling concrete that held the box in fall on him as he turned to the sound, and what he saw was the creature staring at him with black eyes. Roland immediately flipped around and fell onto his back with a thud, failing to jump to his feet. The creature threw the box away and pointed to him with it's mace, _"I want your life, hero!"_

Roland only had one response, "Oh, man, am I in trouble!"

**"MERCURY… BUBBLES… BLAST!"** A blanket of fog and cold suddenly filled the area taking both the creature and Roland off guard, "What the…?" "Now's your chance!" A female voice called out. Confused, Roland answered the voice, "It's you! The one from last night!" "There's no time! Quickly before the fog clears!"

_"You will not escape me. I will have you!" _Roland turned over and began to run when he heard a loud _SWISH _and felt the mace hit the ground where he was laying, narrowly missing one of the device's spines. The impact of the blow caused him to flip onto his back again. It called out again as Roland got to his feet and started running blind through the fog, _"I can smell both of you. I _WILL _have you!"_

Roland barreled down the sidewalk as he tried to get away. He stopped in front of an alley to get his bearings when a white gloved hand reached out from it and pulled him toward it out of the fog. After reaching the alley Roland spun around, cocked the railgun, and pointed it behind him.

The woman in the blue trimmed bodysuit put her hands up and pleaded with him, "Please, I mean you no harm!" Roland lowered the weapon and sighed in relief, soon after wiping his forehead, "I believe you. You had a fair amount of time to off me in the open like that."

"We have to go!" The woman had reached to her right earring and pressed it like a button. After a weak flash of light, a visor appeared over her eyes. She produced a small blue PDA-like device in her hands and began typing on it one handed. It had a golden symbol resembling the symbol of the female sex, but the round part was in the shape of a heart. Roland saw this and was struck by what he saw, "Oh, wow! Advanced tech!"

"My VR visor is linked with my minicomputer; it allows me to scan any creature…" "...Calculatively and visually," Roland finished her sentence, "It works much like a battle HUD." The woman looked up surprised. The techno wiz of the Ghostbusters suddenly felt a bit queasy as he reached for the bridge of his nose. Almost as quickly as he felt it, it disappeared, "That was weird."

The computer beeped causing her to look back toward it, "The fog is beginning to dissipate," she looked back up toward him, "According to my readings, he's what you would classify as a class 7. We have to hold off or stop him from reaching your headquarters!" She turned to head in the opposite direction of the alleyway. "Why are you so interested in us?" Roland asked as she made her way down. She slowed, turned on her boot heel, and walked backwards talking to him, "Because you're good people. We know your Containment system is like a large bomb when shut down; we can't let that happen!"

Roland watched as the woman turned and ran back down the alley toward a fire escape. She leapt up and grabbed the ladder causing it to roll down. Roland put the railgun back on his shoulder and started heading toward the fire escape.

The roads leading to the area were blocked with people. Dan, Egon, and Lita were loaded up in the truck trying to reach Roland and Amy, but the panic was absolutely horrid. Even with the lights on and the siren running, no one could move fast enough for the vehicle to get by.

Dan slammed his hand on the horn, "Come on, get out of the way!" "This thing is really close if it's causing this much panic," Lita leaned over the front seat to look out of the front windshield. Egon had his PKE meter out scanning the area and noticed something strange. There was an interruption in the PKE siphoning that was affecting Slimer; an almost interspacial bubble surrounding the creature, "That's unusual. It's almost as if the creature has an energy field around it that the leaching effect is affecting rather than the creature's actual PKE. It's clear someone is controlling this creature."

"It can't be the same clowns trying to use the recorder," Dan said in denial, "The Draugrs are ectoplasmic; the recorder is of Negaverse origin."

Egon put the PKE meter away and grabbed his pack's particle thrower to start making adjustments, "They - whoever 'They' are - don't know that. It was mentioned in icelandic texts in the 13th century, so they have to be operating under the assumption it is a Norse artifact."

_SCREECH!_ The familiar sound of creatures came from above as Dan and Egon looked skyward through the F-150's windshield. Lita crawled out of the back seat to join them as they saw the Man-Bat monsters fly by overhead. Lita didn't like it, "They're heading toward where Amy and Roland are!"

Dan agreed, "Great! That's all that Draugr needs; a friggan posse!" He put the truck into neutral and revved the engine. The sheer power of the 7.5L engine made enough noise to scare the crowd more effectively than the siren. Now that Dan had their attention, he stuck his head out of the window, "MOVE IT!" The crowd parted like the Red Sea and allowed the truck through. Back into gear, the vehicle lurched forward slowly toward their goal. They didn't say it, but all three of the truck's occupants prayed Roland and Amy could hold out.


	20. Timing

Chapter 20: Timing

Roland reached the top of the building's fire escape as his mystery guest was already on the opposite edge of the roof. She beckoned him to hurry his pace then leapt from one building roof to the other. He scrambled faster up the ladder, "Hey, wait up!"

He crossed the roof and looked over the edge of the building to see it drop off a bit from the previous roof. He groaned and hopped over the edge to drop down. The gravel of the roof gave under him and he slid to the ground. He groaned again in pain as he went to stand. The woman stopped and turned around to see what had happened. She rushed to help him up as he asked, "Exactly who are you? And where's your friend from last night?"

"Look, I know my presence here is disruptive," she said as she lifted him up, "but we don't have time for questions!" She got him to his feet then grabbed him by the hand and started pulling him toward the next roof. Roland anchored himself and pulled himself free from her gloved hand, "Now wait a minute! I feel it's perfectly reasonable you tell me the truth!"

When Roland pulled his hand away, it knocked the woman off balance. She staggered a bit as he demanded an answer. She looked to him surprised. She brushed her blue hair to the side trying to compose herself, "I'm not entirely sure if you would believe it." "Wouldn't I? You're Amy, aren't you?"

She was stunned. She couldn't believe it, "How…?" "Your PKE doesn't register on our meters and you're friends with Egon. Only he would program out your signatures without my knowledge. Not to mention, how many people around here have blue hair?" She was very quickly shut down. She was terrified Roland figured it out so quickly, "You're right. It is me. In this form, I'm known as Sailor Mercury." "That would explain why you and the others were in the tower. Lita and Raye?"

"Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars."

"And the others?"

Sailor Mercury felt as though she was saying too much, but it felt as though it was too late, "Mina is Sailor Venus; Darien goes by the name Tuxedo Mask; Serena is Sailor Moon, our leader."

"And Dan?" Sailor Mercury looked to the Ghostbuster before her. She sighed, "He's one of us, too. Jupiter Knight; Lita's protector." Roland looked down and sighed himself. Sailor Mercury didn't feel comfortable with what just happened, "Please, don't be mad at us." Roland shook his head, "No, I understand why you don't go around telling people," he looked at her, "Does anyone else know besides Egon?"

"Outside of a select few back home, Dr. Venkman, Dr. Stantz, and Mr. Zeddemore." Roland nodded. He recentered the railgun on his shoulder and began walking toward the next edge. The Sailor Scout raised an eyebrow as he walked past. After looking over the edge, he looked back, "You coming?" She was rather surprised he was taking the reveal in great stride.

_SCREECH!_ The both of them looked skyward and found several of the Man-Bat creatures overhead. Sailor Mercury activated her VR visor again as Roland armed the railgun, "There're approximately 30 creatures in the air!" A very large hand rose over the ledge of the building and smashed down on the roof right between them. While distracted, a creature swooped out of the air, landed behind Sailor Mercury, and wrapped its arms around her. She screamed in terror…

_PLINK! _An energy wake and an exploded head was all that was left of the creature. Sailor Mercury winced for a moment as the creature fell, then looked at Roland. The end of the railgun was lined up with the wake, its barrel still glowing from the discharge. The hand on the roof clenched as the Draugr hefted itself up the side of the building. Roland turned on heel and pointed the weapon toward the edge of the roof. As soon as the beast's head was in clear view, the beast spoke, _"I will take you to Hel myself!"_

"By all means," Roland cocked the weapon, it charging up, "you go first!" Another pull of the trigger, the shot rang out and hit the monster in the eye. A large mass of matter blew out from the back of its head. The beast reached for its eye with the hand that was pulling itself up and fell off the side of the building. When it hit the ground, the building started rumbling. Sailor Mercury looked toward the building with her visor, "The building is starting to collapse!"

Roland looked around. There wasn't much time to be had, so he had to think fast. What would Egon or Dan do? He looked back up and saw more of the creatures overhead. He didn't like the idea, but they were out of options. He started yelling as he armed the rifle again, "Hey, you rabid flying rats!" He discharged the railgun several times in the air hitting a few of the beasts. The swarm began flying toward them, "Roland?" There was a great deal of worry in her voice after she turned and witnessed the Ghostbuster aggravating the airborne threat, "They're going to tear us apart!"

"Wrong!" He got into a ready position putting the rifle on his shoulder, "They're our way down!" A creature began diving down toward him with its talons out and ready to swipe when he jumped toward it and grabbed hold of its legs. The creature squealed and started flying erratically through the air as Roland refused to let go.

Sailor Mercury looked on as the creature tried to fling the Ghostbuster off it, her feeling her heart fluttering in fear if he were to let go. The moment was enough for another creature to grab her much like the other before and hauled her into the sky. She attempted to elbow the beast to get it to let go, but it was a failed effort. She yelled out, "Let go of me, you leather-winged weirdo!" The beast hovered with her in its arms as she struggled.

Roland managed to look down and saw Sailor Mercury struggling, "Amy!" He took a deep breath and released the creature, landing on top of the beast holding her. They all started careening toward the ground, Roland placing the beast in a chokehold while hanging onto the beast's back. The creature beat its wings hard making itself slow its descent.

The Draugr was beginning to pick itself up as the building it was climbing collapsed to the ground. It looked to the sky and saw both of its targets struggling with the creature gliding toward the ground with its one good eye, _"Filthy interlopers!"_

The Man-Bat creature touched down and started whipping Roland around while still holding onto Sailor Mercury. The Sailor Scout finally had enough, "Let go of me, you creep!" She raised her boot and stomped on the beast's talon causing it to shrek and turn her loose. She stumbled to the pavement of the street. Her visor still running, she began picking herself up when she saw a sudden spike in PKE. She saw a large shadow cover over her as the stench of decay washed over. Looking up, she saw the Draugr walking up and raising it's mace, _"Do not interfere!"_ She rolled over and yelled out to Roland, him still struggling with the winged creature, "Roland, look out!"

Roland turned his attention from the creature he was manhandling to the large hulking mass approaching the both of them. His eyes went wide as the beast swung down toward him and the Man-Bat, "Whoa, mama!" He jumped off and stumbled back as the mace accelerated toward his position. The Man-Bat looked up just in time to screech…

_SPLAT!_ The creature was smashed under the weight of the Draugr's mace, its green guts gushing from under the weapon's mass. The other Man-Bats started swarming from the sky and attacking the Draugr like hornets. While the monsters were distracted with each others' presence, Roland rushed up to Sailor Mercury and picked her up, the two of them turning and running for a safe place soon after.

In an isolated alley, Roland and Sailor Mercury leaned against the wall and panted, sweating profusely as the adrenaline high wore off. Roland especially doubled over and shaking, "My God, I've never done something so… so… _stupid _in my life! How does Garrett get kicks from something so impetuous and dangerous?" Sailor Mercury went to comment, but something came into her sight. Her visor was still active, and something appeared on the display causing her gasp. She turned to Roland and the signal became stronger. It couldn't be…

"Roland," Sailor Mercury was unsure of how to put it, "Why did you do it if it's not… What I mean is…" "I donno," he stood back up, back to her, "I had this feeling of urgency; that I had to act. Tell me honestly, Amy," he turned to look at her, the symbol of Mercury on the right side of his chest, "I'm one of them. I'm one of these Solar Knights." It was true. The visor over her eyes confirmed her very energy pattern was emanating off of him. The symbol faded as he looked her in the eyes, "I'm Mercury Knight. I don't know how, but I just feel it."

"It's one of the powers the Knights have; they can read the thoughts and feelings of their respective Sailor Scout. I never even mentioned anything aside from…" "...Dan being Jupiter Knight?"

"That would certainly explain it."

Roland looked down to the new voice that entered the alley. He saw two cats; a black one and a white one, both with crescent moon symbols on their heads. Sailor Mercury looked down and deactivated her visor, "Luna! Artemis!"

Roland shook his head, "Am I hallucinating, or did one of those cats just talk?" "It's not a hallucination," Luna sat and looked up, "we are the Sailor Scouts' advisors and guardians. We came here with them, but have been restricted to outside your headquarters." Artemis joined her side and did the same, "Something about two trigger-happy Ghostbusters?"

"Okay," Roland put his hand to the side of his head, "this is weirder than that time Eduardo turned into Kylie's cat." "Uh… how did…?" the white cat began asking when Sailor Mercury stopped him, "You really don't want to know." Luna looked back to her, "Is it true? Is he one of the Knights?"

Sailor Mercury nodded, "Not only that, but we also discovered Eduardo is Venus Knight. He managed to heal Dan's wounds."

Luna blinked hard at that, "Two Knights? On the same day? And both are _also _Ghostbusters?"

"Excuse me," Roland was losing his patience, "Number one: don't act like I'm not here, and number two: we still have a giant monster right around the corner!" As if on cue, a Man-Bat flew into the alley, but there was something missing on it - one of its wings. It crashed into the alley just ahead of the group. It looked badly injured. Everyone turned their attention to it as Roland armed the railgun again and walked closer.

Artemis was nervous, "Is it dead?" Roland pushed the creature with the barrel of the rifle, then looked back, "I think it's just unconscious." The creature's eyes snapped open and it leapt toward Sailor Mercury. In panic, Roland threw his arm out toward the creature, "NO!" The creature had wound up to slash, Sailor Mercury flinching…

It stopped. It stood still in a frozen pose as steam started to roll off the creature's form in the summer humidity. Sailor Mercury peeked from one of her eyes and saw the creature before her locked in place like a statue. Luna and Aretmis had jumped away during the creature's lunge, but were now confused as the creature stood stiff before them. Luna finally found the words, "W-what happened?"

Roland asked just as confused, "How did…" he looked at the palm of his hand, "Did _I_ do that?" "Yes," Sailor Mercury's voice cracked slightly as she backed away from the creature, "it's one of your incognito powers; you have the power to instantly freeze anything." Artemis walked up to the statue and poked it with his paw. A cracking was heard as the base of the frozen beast snapped and fell over hitting the ground. It shattered causing everyone to jump again. Annoyed, Luna scolded him, "Artemis!" "I didn't know!" the cat said in response.

A shadow enveloped the alley as everyone heard heavy breathing, _"You cannot escape me!" _They all turned as the Draugr's hand was reaching into the alley towards them. "Clear out!" Roland yelled. He blew off some of the beast's fingers as he began running backwards.

At the opposite end of the alley, the cat guardians and Sailor Mercury exited with Roland coming up the rear. The beast hollered at it's missing fingers as the group of its targets fled, the terrible noise echoing through Tribeca as they ran.

The nearby streets were empty; the buildings abandoned. Crowds could be seen down several streets, but the police erected barriers with their squad cars to keep the people at bay. They were truly alone. Roland looked around the neighborhood and found themselves by 388 Greenwich. The skyscraper was home to Citigroup and was closed because of the earthquake the week before. The building was empty, "This way!" Everyone looked to Roland as he waved them to follow, him quickly turning to the building.

They crossed the public space of the plaza and ran through benches and trees to the main entrance. It was a large amount of open space to cover as creatures started to gather overhead. Roland went to open the door, but found it locked. He charged the railgun and shot the lock causing a shower of sparks to fly from the door. The glass shattered, but he opened the door like normal. Sailor Mercury ran in followed by Luna, but someone was missing. Luna looked around, "Where's Artemis?"

_SCREECH!_ A swarm of creatures descended onto the square as the Sailor Scout, the Cat Guardian, and the Ghostbuster looked outside to the plaza and found Artemis ducked under a bench. One creature swiped at the white cat busting the wood of the bench. He did the best he could to defend himself clawing back at the creature, "Go on! Leave me alone, you Nosferatu wannabe!" He managed to make contact with the monster which only served to anger it. It subsequently swiped extra hard and shattered the cast iron center support of the bench making him shriek, "HELP!"

Roland cocked the rifle again and took aim. He pulled the trigger…

Nothing.

He charged the gun again, but it didn't fire. He looked around the weapon until he quickly figured out what was wrong, "I'm out of power! I don't have any extra Proton Canisters!"

Sailor Mercury heard this and looked back out to the benches in the court, her eyes wide. She yelled out the door as she saw more the creatures begin to encroach, "Hold on, Artemis! I'm coming!" She rushed out and began running to Artemis's position. "Wait, Sailor Mercury!" Luna cried, but it was too late.

**"SHINE… AQUA… FREEZING!"** Sailor Mercury threw out a massive wave of liquid that created a half shield of ice blocking the other airborne monsters. She jumped into the air and kicked the monster attacking the cat guardian in the chest throwing it into the ice wall knocking it out. After a tuck and roll, she reached under the bench, "Come on!" Artemis ran out of the underside of the bench and into her arms.

They turned and began heading to the building when the ground started shaking. A large mace crashed into the ground before them blocking their escape into the building. Sailor Mercury jumped back only to be scooped up into the Draugr's damaged hand. With the beast's missing fingers, it didn't have a good grip on her upper body. She released Artemis toward the ground, "Run, Artemis! Run!"

Back at the building entrance Roland and Luna looked on helpless as they watched the Draugr lift the Sailor Scout up. Roland watched her struggle, "W-what do we do?! What do we do?!" "You have to go out there and save her!" Luna shouted. The Ghostbuster looked down panicked, "How?! The railgun is dead and I don't have any other equipment!" He peered back out the door watching the horror unfold, "What am I supposed to fight that thing with?"

"With this!" Roland looked over and watched as the black cat jumped and backflipped into the air. At the peak of the flip a bright flash emanated and an object materialized. It fell making Roland reach out and grab it out of the air. He opened his hand and found a silver metal necklace with a symbol representing the Greek God Hermes. He cocked an eyebrow, "What's this?"

Luna looked up to him, "It's the gateway to your power! Quickly, say, 'Mercury Knight Supremacy'!" In a confusing tone, he repeated the line, "Mercury Knight Supremacy?" _WOOSH!_ A curtain of glistening steam shot from the ground around him enveloping him. He screamed in terror...

The struggling Sailor Scout was hefted up as she came face to face with the beast. It spoke to her, _"You are like the other; the other who fought my Kin. I shall devour you!"_ The monster's jaws opened as Sailor Mercury looked down the beast's gullet. She began screaming as it began moving her towards its mouth.

Artemis had stood there the whole time, too terrified to run. He watched as the beast was about to eat Sailor Mercury desperately hoping he could think of something to do to stop the monster, but alas, "God, someone help her!"

**"MERCURY… HYDRO… WHIP!"** What looked like a stream of water flew out of the air and struck the monster square in the head. The beast fell over and hit the ground dropping Sailor Mercury out of its hand. She rolled roughly 10 feet from the beast's hand, but quickly pushed herself up to see what just happened.

Artemis watched the whole event play before him and now he was standing in shock of what he witnessed, "What was that?" He turned in the direction the stream originated.

The beast growled as it pushed itself up and started looking around with its good eye, _"Who dares strike me? Show yourself you wretch!"_

"Sorry, ugly, but Sailor Scout isn't on the menu!" A rolling fog began pouring from behind the monster as boots could be heard walking on the pavement. From out of the fog bank walked a man wearing a dark blue long coat trimmed in a lighter blue. Under the coat the figure wore a gunmetal grey armor chest plate, legs clad in armor plating, and slacks in matching color to the coat under the armor. Protruding from the back of the coat was a sword hilt. The man raised one arm showing his hand covered in a chainmail glove, his other chainmail-clad hand raising to the cuff of the glove to pull it tighter over the hand. On one of the forearms was a small screen and it glowed aquamarine blue in color. On the sleeve of the blue leather coat was the symbol of the planet Mercury. Sailor Mercury was in awe, "Roland…"

Mercury Knight had made the scene.


	21. Hydraulic

Chapter 21: Hydraulic

A block away. The truck was just now pulling up to the barricade quickly and haphazardly created on the edge of the neighborhood frontier. Police cars blocked the larger portion of the street with police wearing riot gear standing in between the gaps. The black F-150 came to a slow halt. Dan rolled down the window and started addressing one of the armored officers, "Hey, Sergeant! Ghostbusters!" He did a light double tap on the horn to get the officer's attention.

One of the officers looked over, his riot helmet's face shield somewhat obscured from scratches making the officer's face unidentifiable. He broke formation and walked to the truck's driver side. As he approached, Dan spoke of the urgency, "Let us through! We have a 25 foot pissed off zombie tearing up the western section of Tribeca!" The riot geared officer raised his face shield. Dan and Egon groaned…

It was Carl.

Dan slammed his head into his headrest swearing under his breath, "Aw, shit!" "Well, ain't that a coinkie-dink," Carl said with venom, "Figures you goofballs would show up in _my_ neighborhood."

Dan flinched at that, "_Your_ neighborhood?"

Carl growled, "Not that it's any of your business, Chicago-Boy, but me and my partner transferred to this patrol block after the last monster attack."

Egon leaned forward to see Carl from his side of the truck, "Sergeant, there's a possibility that creature is heading toward our headquarters, and if that happens this city will be a giant ghost-filled crater if we don't stop it now!"

"I have my orders to _not_ let a soul through," he walked closer to the driver window trying to intimidate Dan with his presence, pointing at the two men in the truck, "That includes you nutbars."

Through it all, Lita listened to all of them talk, but the insult was too far. She crawled over the seat and blurted out, "One of us is over there with a friend of ours! We have to get over there!"

Carl sneered at her, "Who the Hell are you?" Lita was taken aback at not only Carl's response, but her own outburst. She stammered a moment.

Dan looked back and forth between them, then rolled his eyes, letting out a stressful sigh in the process, "Carl, this is Lita Kino; my girlfriend. Lita, this is Sergeant Carl Rivera; Eddie's brother." As he made the introductions, he took no joy in it knowing now Lita was going to be at the ire of Eduardo's older sibling. Lita's tone changed as she looked at Carl, "_He's_ Eduardo's brother? No wonder he doesn't like cops!"

Dan snapped his head around and scolded her, "_Lita!"_ She realized too late she shot her mouth off, and winced as she slinked back into the back seat. He turned back to Carl and saw he was even more annoyed than before. Dan already knew what was to happen, "Look, we don't have time for an argument! Will you just…"

"Absolutely not!" Carl was stern on his answer, "Why the hell would I let you through here?" That was when the wind picked up as a stray creature started to fly down towards the barrier. He looked up and found it coming right at him. "Holy shi…" the beast's talons slashed through his riot helmet. He fell over and hit the ground, his headgear thrown away from him.

Dan witnessed this and jumped out of the truck, "Oh, fuck! Carl!" He knelt down as other riot officers approached, "Carl, you okay?" The police sergeant pushed himself up and shook his head. He didn't appear to have any damage to his face or head. Despite Dan's concern, Carl didn't reciprocate, "What's it to you?"

Dan's sense of concern was immediately replaced by hostility as he grabbed Carl's head and forcefully pointed it toward his dislodged and heavily damaged riot helmet, "That could have been your _head_, you fucking tool!" He released him and continued yelling, "God fucking forbid I actually fucking care about people!"

The other officers grabbed Dan and started pulling at him to restrain him as Carl stood up. He had his back to the Ghostbuster, "Why do you care?" Dan wasn't done yet, "I don't want to see Kevin without a father, you motherfucker!"

The words. It dug into Carl's mind like a nail. He turned and looked to him. Dan was serious. There was something about the words that hurt his heart. In the silence Egon stepped out of the truck and rounded the front of the vehicle. Lita crawled over the back of the front seat and looked at what was happening. One of the officers holding Dan raised his face shield and asked, "Charges, sir?"

_SCREECH!_ Everyone looked skyward and found more Man-Bats overhead. They circled before diving toward the police cars and the Ecto-Truck causing a scramble. Carl screamed out, "HIT THE DECK!" The riot geared police turned Dan loose and all of them dropped to the ground. A beast sailed down toward Dan. Dan turned in time to see the beast heading toward him, "WOAH!"

A particle stream struck the creature in the back and it was thrown from its position into the ground nearby. People in the crowd screamed as the creature came toward them Dan looked behind him and saw Egon adjusting his particle thrower again, the tip of the gun smoking, "We're going to have to distract them! Get them to follow us!" Dan nodded and ran to the back of the truck to grab his pack as Egon stepped back into the truck.

Carl got up and saw Dan hop into the bed of the truck. As he watched him mess with his Ghostbusting equipment he called out, "Move the cars! We'll draw them away from the crowd!" Carl drew his pistol and pointed it at Dan, "I don't think so!" Dan's eyes widened…

**BOOM!** Dan flinched then heard a creature squeal and land on the roof of the truck. He turned and saw the beast's body slide off the top of the vehicle and land on the ground, a fresh bullet hole in it's head. Dan looked to Carl as he lowered the weapon, "You may be insane, but I ain't gonna have your death on my conscience. However," he holstered the pistol, "if you wanna commit suicide, I ain't gonna stop you." He pointed to some of the officers beginning to stand back up, and pointed to the two squads in the way of the truck.

The officers looked at each other and began moving to the vehicle's. After the squads were moved Dan looked to him, "Thanks. I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything," Carl picked up his riot helmet and sneered at him, "Just get the hell outta my sight." Dan shrugged and slammed his hand on the roof of the truck, "You heard the man, Lita. Let's haul." After that, he ducked down into the bed as Lita moved into the driver seat and started the truck.

Egon was curious as he looked at her and stated, "I didn't know you could drive." "I can't," she responded, "I can tap into Dan's skillset and use his knowledge." "Through the link?" He was intrigued, "Fascinating!" That was until it occurred to him, "Wait a minute, that means… Oh, no!" she peeled out, him sinking into the seat from the power of the engine. Dan began firing at the creatures causing them to chase after the truck.

Mercury Knight stood before the Draugr and raised his left arm to look at the screen on it. The screen displayed readouts very similar to Sailor Mercury's minicomputer. He punched in a few variables and took a scan, "Definitely a Class 7" he lowered his arm and looked to the beast, "Let's see how long we can hold you off."

The Draugr turned to the Knight and witnessed the man approach. Sailor Mercury took the opportunity to stand and back away as the Draugr was distracted. The beast stood, it speaking as it did, _"You wish to challenge me, hero?"_

"Not like I have a choice," Mercury Knight lamented, drawing the sword from the sheath in the back of the longcoat, "but I will defend the people I care about!" He stood ready as the Draugr came to it's feet, _"Your proposal has been noted."_ The beast swung the mace overhead to drop it on top of Mercury Knight.

He dove forward missing the massive weapon. He rolled back onto his feet and proceeded to rush the beast's legs. Using the sword, he slashed the monster in the leg. It hollered as from the slash the leg began to crystallize. He looked back, surprised at what he just did, "Woah, that's interesting," He looked back to his wrist-mounted screen and scanned the beast, "I'm actually suspending all energy accumulation in the Draugr's cellular structure."

The Draugr was actively freezing in place. Sailor Mercury rushed around the creature and ran to her Knight's side, backing up toward him to watch what was happening. She activated her own visor as she looked at what was happening, "Roland, it looks as though it won't hold for long! We have to destroy it before the effect of your weapon strike wear's off." "Right!" Mercury Knight wound up to take another lunge at the beast when another Man-Bat dropped from the sky and began clawing at Sailor Mercury.

Mercury Knight took notice and began turning at attack back when another airborne beast grabbed him by his longcoat lifting him into the air, "Hey! Let me down, you Kirk Langstrom knock-off!" He stabbed his sword into the beast's chest causing it to crystallize. The effect spread throughout the monster's form making the beast stop it's upward accent. It was at this moment the Knight realized, "Uh, oh," he looked down to the rapidly approaching pavement, then looked at the brick wall of a nearby building he was also heading toward, "I didn't think this through!" Taking the sword out of the creature's chest, he then used the sword's hilt to break the frozen claws of the Man-Bat into pieces freeing him. Grabbing the remains of the legs, he looked down, then ahead trying to think fast.

Sailor Mercury attempted to fistfight the creature, but was doing more dodging than fighting. She jumped away from the beast in time to see Mercury Knight break away from the now frozen Man-Bat and hang on. Just as suddenly, she looked back to her own creature just as the Draugr's large mace swung past and knocked the creature away from her. The Draugr was dragging it's frozen foot behind it, _"You are MY kill!"_ She didn't get the opportunity to see what happened to her Knight.

The wall was approaching fast. Mercury Knight was still too high off the ground, but it was better than hitting a wall _then_ falling to the ground. He let loose the creature and dropped toward the street. The monster hit the wall and shattered. Mercury Knight fell 5 stories when he suddenly felt the instinct to fall to his feet. As he positioned himself, he felt what felt like metal-on-metal clanking on his boots. When he made contact with the ground, he actively caved in the street as he knelt down suppressing the momentum.

While still kneeling he looked at his boots and found a set of what looked like pneumatic solenoids on either side of each boot connected to a metal tread plate on the bottom. He immediately deduced what they were, "Jump actuators? I can _jump_?"

"_ROLAND!_" Sailor Mercury's voice projected stress hard as he looked behind him while standing, finding her being cornered in the front courtyard of 388 Greenwich. The Draugr was still dragging his frozen leg behind him approaching the Sailor Scout, mace in hand. He heard the monster talk, _"You are delaying the inevitable. Your Kin shall lie beside you!"_

A phrase suddenly popped into Mercury Knight's head like it did before. He clenched his fist and wound up his arm for a punch as he screamed out, **"MERCURY… HYDRAULIC… PUNCH!"** As he swung his fist in the air, a wave of water formed behind him. It snaked around him and flew toward the Draugr, the water forming into the shape of a fist. The Draugr turned in time to see the punch go right for it. The beast was thrown to the pavement.

Sailor Mercury knelt down and covered her face as dust and wind blew toward her. She looked back up and looked through the glass of her visor to see the creature fall backwards and shake the ground on collision. The wave disappeared as Mercury Knight relaxed. He turned to his Princess and started running over, "Are you alright?" He quickly came beside her as she spoke, "I'm okay." He lifted her up to her feet as she panted, "I'm a bit rusty. We haven't used our powers in a number of years."

"One of the advantages of always wearing a nuclear weapon on your back," he stated, finally getting her to her feet, "it forces you to have endurance." It was at that moment both Sailor Mercury's visor and Mercury Knight's wrist mounted scanner began beeping. They looked overhead and saw the light begin to be blotted out. A swarm much larger than the night before started to gather above them as the two of them saw them begin to circle.

If that weren't enough, the Draugr sat up, rose it's mace, and smashed the ice over it's leg off. The beast's muscle and skin went with the ice, but it didn't affect the creature for now it stood, towering over the Sailor Scout and her Knight on one uncovered skeletal leg. Sailor Mercury didn't like what was happening, "We can take out the flying monsters, but I forgot our powers don't work on ectoplasmic entities. There's nothing we can do about the Draugr."

Roland Jackson. A man who just discovered moments ago of a power he was unfamiliar with just learned of his power's limitations. Without his equipment, this young woman whom he was to protect as well as himself were to be surely killed if it wasn't for the hope he began to gain when he heard two familiar sounds in the distance. He heard the rev of a Ford 460 big block, and the sound of a repeating moan.

The black F-150 rounded the corner and skidded to a stop. "We might not be able to stop it," Mercury Knight pointed at the truck, "but there's who can!"

Dan had stood up in the back of the vehicle and hooked what looked like a webbed nylon strap from one side of the truck's roll bar to the other. He placed the strap behind him to act like a restraint. He called out as he grabbed his particle thrower, "You ready, Egon?" Egon leaned out of the passenger window with his thrower in his hand, armed and ready to fire, "Affirmative!" "Alright, Lita, _light 'em up!_"

Lita popped the clutch and stomped on the gas. The truck's tires made so much noise squealing the Draugr took notice. Dan braced himself as the truck flew past the beast. Dan and Egon opened fire, their beams striking the monster blowing off more of it's flesh. The Draugr took exception to their attack and proceeded to bellow in rage, it chasing after them.


	22. Change In Objective

Chapter 22: Change In Objective

As the truck distracted the large beast, the mass flying above started diving toward Sailor Mercury and her Knight. Mercury Knight stood in front of her and gripped tighter on his sword, "You _will not_ harm her! **MERCURY…** **FRIDGED… WAVE!**" He slashed his sword in front of him as a thin streak of ice flew off the blade's edge. The ice was so sharp it virtually sliced all of the Man-Bat's in its wake in half to varying degrees. A large swath of creatures fell to the ground in chunks as the ice blade traveled far into the sky.

More avoided the ice blade hovering just above its path. When a few stragglers were left, Mercury Knight knelt down, "You wanna learn the hard way? I'm all for it!" When he went to jump up, his boots began to hiss as what looked like compressed gas shot from the bottom of the solenoids, their plungers pushing him off the ground suddenly. Mercury Knight lept high into the air and readied his sword. _RASP! CLANG!_ The sword slashed through the creatures as their remains fell to terra firma.

The truck fishtailed, stopping to turn around. Dan braced himself again as Egon held onto the side of the vehicle to make sure he didn't slide out of the window. The Draugr approached slowly with it's mace at the ready. Dan looked to the monster's damaged leg, "Lita, aim for it's leg! Egon, shoot right where it's kneecap is exposed!" Lita yelled out the window, "Wait, wouldn't that damage the truck?"

"The bumper and bull bar are reinforced," the Ghostbuster in the bed responded, loading a new Proton Canister as he did, "I installed heavy-duty parts for this purpose."

"He's correct to attempt this," Egon also responded as he reloaded, "with our proton beams aimed at a weak point, the kinetic force and mass of the truck should break it's Ecto-charged skeleton, immobilizing it."

Lita was unsure, but she proceeded to shift into first, "I hope you maniacs know what you're doing." She heard Dan yell out, indignant, "Who you callin' a maniac?" She rolled her eyes, "That psychic link is starting to annoy me," she tore out, pushing the truck's engine to its limits. Dan and Egon fired their packs on the agreed upon spot.

The Draugr hollered in agony and went to swing its weapon in rage, but the vehicle was too fast. Egon watched their approach to the creature's leg calling out, "Keep firing! Hold it... _Hold it..._ NOW!" On command, Egon quickly crawled back into the truck's cab as Dan slipped down back into the bed. Lita flinched as the truck was practically on top of the monster.

CRACK! The monster's leg broke off right where Dan and Egon shot it. The break was high up enough for the truck to completely miss the remaining part of the Draugr's leg. The dislodged part rolled under the truck causing the vehicle to bounce wildly, throwing Dan all over the bed of the truck. Lita instinctively slammed on the brakes and caused the truck to skid to a stop. The Draugr collapsed to the ground falling onto the garden of the front entrance of the building. The beast was down.

Lita and Egon climbed out of the truck and looked into the bed, "Dan!" The both of them exclaimed, Egon taking over from there, "Are you okay?" Dan was budded up against the bed's toolbox still covering his head laying on his side. When he heard them calling out Dan lifted his head. He appeared to be okay, "Did we get it?" "Yeah," Lita answered, "it's down!" Dan scrambled to his feet and jumped out of the truck's bed.

Standing close to the truck, Egon took his PKE meter out and took a scan as both Dan and Lita approached it quickly. Lita took the trap off her back and began to prime it. She heard Egon yell to her, "Tune the trap to modulation 606.11. It'll trap it's essence!" She stopped to make the adjustments as Dan covered her.

Mercury Knight in the meantime was busy jumping into the air and leaping from Man-Bat to Man-Bat to take out as many as he could. Sailor Mercury was aiding in the battle throwing punches, kicks, and freezing maneuvers to kill and freeze monsters in place. Only a few dozen of the creatures remained when one landed on the ground, Mercury Knight joining it on the pavement. He panted as he spoke, "Geez, don't you guys ever stop?" The beast walked forward a small stint causing the Knight to raise his sword...

The creature stopped as it's horde screeched out. The flock of creatures including the one before the Knight turned its attention from him and flew off in another direction. He watched this happen before his eyes as the beast fled, "What the…?"

Sailor Mercury was locked in a physical struggle with a beast, her pushing back its arms which had its claws unfurled. It was screeching in her face and beginning to overtake her…

The beast heard its kin call out, its attention drawn to the horde's cry. It stopped, let Sailor Mercury go, and took flight away from her. The sudden jarring shocked her, "Hey!" She watched where they were heading, "Oh, no! DR. SPENGLER, LOOK OUT!"

Egon looked from his meter to see a creature drop directly in front of him. It startled him as it wound up and slammed its fist into his face. His glasses went flying off his face as he fell to the ground unconscious. He didn't have enough time to warn Dan and Lita.

Lita finally got the trap adjusted, "Ready!" Dan armed his thrower, "Do it!" he commanded. He was turned to the beast and kept an eye on it as he watched the trap fly from his peripheral vision onto the monster's chest. It was a short while after the trap reached the monster, but nothing was happening. That was when he felt a sudden spike of terror crawl over him, he turned and found Lita had been once again grabbed by one of the Man-Bats. It had its arms around her holding her from behind. She was struggling to get free.

Dan unholstered his Ectoplasmic Destabilizing pistol and aimed, but he couldn't get a clean shot. As he attempted to keep aiming, the Draugr sat up and grabbed him. It brought him to it's face and it leered at him with its good eye, _"You destroyed my brother; you shall DIE!"_

"Aw, man," Dan lamented, "I'm gonna need a _looooot_ of Tylenol after this." The Draugr flung the Ghostbuster in it's hand toward the building. Dan screamed as he tore through the air. Lita witnessed this and screamed out his name in terror.

As all of this happened, Luna and Artemis watched the two-front fight unfold before them, but now they looked on as Dan was grabbed and thrown like a baby throwing a toy. Dan sailed the air and toward the upper windows of the building's lobby, crashing into them and falling to the marble floor.

The two cats ran over and checked on him as he struggled to breathe, "Dan!" Luna cried out, "Dan, are you okay?" He finally coughed and gasped, "That fuckin' _hurt_!" He rolled a bit to try alleviate the pain, groaning as he did, "Newton and his goddamn gravity!"

Outside, Lita kept struggling with the beast finally forcing it to turn her loose. Elbowing it in the chest, the creature backed off enough for her to grab it's arm and flip it onto it's back. Stepping on it's chest, she twisted it's arm and broke it.

Another set of six creatures dropped from the sky surrounding her. She readied herself and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, "You're messin' with the wrong woman, boys! Dan is _not_ going to be hurt over me **again**!" She took her pent up rage and let loose, throwing kicks and punches in rapid succession knocking the monsters away from her. At one point, she even unholstered her Proton Pistol, stuck the barrel under a beast's chin, and pulled the trigger sending it flying through the air.

Sailor Mercury and Mercury Knight rushed toward Lita to aid her when the remaining creatures landed before them blocking their path.

Dan got to his feet and walked to the door, leaning onto the frame watching what was happening, "Goddamn these things! There's nothing in our arsenal that can stop these things!" Luna and Artemis walked beside him, Artemis speaking up as he walked up to the psykinetic pulse-rail, "That's not true! This shotgun-looking thing Roland was using worked until it ran out of power."

Dan looked down and found the railgun at his feet. He picked it up, but spoke in an annoyed tone, "Damnit, Roland! I still needed to make adjustments!" Luna commented as Dan reloaded the Proton Canisters on the back of the weapon, popping the lock bar and ejecting both canisters, "It seemed to have run out rather quickly." "I needed to adjust the power input matrix. Roland's good at building equipment; damn good," he pushed down on the weapon's lock bar securing the new canisters from his pack in place, "but he needs work on his efficiency tuning."

Every creature Lita knocked down got back up. Every time a creature was knocked down, another took its place as the other stood. She kept fighting, but was starting to become overrun as more creatures boxed her in. Egon was out cold, Roland was nowhere to be seen, Dan had been knocked away and possibly injured, and Sailor Mercury was fighting alongside someone she's never seen before but being blocked by the creatures. She was isolated by these creatures, she didn't think to bring her transformation wand with her, and the Proton Packs were still useless. These things knew how to wear her down.

The Man-Bats finally got a definitive hold of her grabbing her by the arms. They stripped her of the trap rig and her Proton Pistol disarming her. She continued to struggle, but too many of them flanked her making it impossible to maneuver. She yelled in anger, "What do you ugly things want with me? Leave me alone!" She still had use of her legs, she managed to jump up and kick a beast with both her feet, but it did little to stop the horde swarming her.

That wasn't the only type of beast that wanted in. The horrible stench of rotting flesh again filled the space around as a Norse accent boomed in the void, _"No! She is _my _prize to deliver!" _The beasts turned to the Draugr as it crawled across the front courtyard of the building reaching for her. It reached out toward her with it's injured hand as it spoke, _"I WILL have you!"_

An energy wake tore through the air as hot plasma struck the monster in it's large oversized arm. The impact blew the arm off leaving a decaying stump. The beast bellowed in pain as it gripped it's arm, soon after hearing a very anger-laced voice fill the clearing, "She is _nobody's _prize!" A sound similar to a shotgun pump handle cocking was heard as a high pitched whine accompanied it. Dan walked out of the building and aimed the railgun at the Draugr's head, "She belongs to no one so long as I breathe!"

Another plasma blast left the barrel of the weapon hitting the beast in the side of the head. In quick succession, Dan charged and fired multiple shots blowing the winged monsters swarming Lita apart. A small contingent of Man-Bats left Lita's side and began to lunge at him. Taking the back of the weapon, Dan cracked the first beast that approached him in the face. He quickly flipped the gun back around and fired into the chest of another creature behind the first.

While the creatures were distracted Lita managed to jump and flip behind her would-be captors pulling free from their grip and landing behind them. She proceeded to leg sweep the two that were holding onto her.

Sailor Mercury and Mercury Knight managed to finally plow through the remaining monsters and proceeded toward the Ecto-Truck and found Egon still on the ground. Mercury Knight grabbed the scientist's glasses and Sailor Mercury rushed to his side, kneeling down, "Dr. Spengler!" She lifted him up slightly and cradled his head in her lap. She started to lightly tap him on the face to try and make him stir. Mercury Knight went into the truck and pulled Dan's first aid kit from under the seat retrieving the ice pack from it. He handed it to his Sailor Scout where she proceeded to administer it to his head.

After a moment, Egon began to stir him groaning as he opened his eyes, "What happened?" "One of the creatures knocked you out," she applied the ice pack to a different part of his head, "We tried to warn you…" "That's okay," he rubbed where he was hit, "I'm suddenly recalling why I no longer perform field work." He looked up to Mercury Knight as he handed him his glasses. At first he was confused, but he took the glasses and looked at the figure before him, "Wait, Roland, is that you?"

"Afraid so." His tone of voice was none too thrilled if Egon could decipher. Egon understood why, so he sat up to explain, "You have to understand…" "No, I get it, Egon," Mercury Knight sighed, "I can't hold it against you for not telling us." By this time Egon and Sailor Mercury stood, "Still, I feel as though I have to apologize." They heard the Draugr starting to move about again then they saw the giant mace it was carrying start to grind against the concrete.

The Draugr ignored them as it crawled toward Dan and Lita again, missing one leg, one arm, and now a whole half of it's head. Mercury Knight reached into the back of the truck and took a Proton Pack out, stating as he did, "We don't have time for apologies. We have to stop that thing from reaching Lita!"

They we're surrounded. Dan and Lita kept fighting, the two of them now fighting back to back against the horde attacking them. Lita threw a jab as she yelled out, "Are you okay?" "It's not the first time I've been flung through glass," Dan responded, discharging the weapon in his possession, "I'll manage. How 'bout you?"

She grabbed a monster by it's head and kneed it in the face, "I'm fine. I've been able to fight fine without you, after all." That sounded rather aggressive, if not anger-laced. Dan didn't like that, "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, reloading the weapon's canisters. "I was fighting bigger and meaner things long after you left! HYAH!" She mashed her foot into a Man-Bat's throat, "I _can _take care of myself!"

A creature tried to grab a hold of Dan and instead grabbed the railgun in his hands. He struggled as he responded, "I never said you couldn't. Here!" he took another canister off his pack, "Chew on this, scumbag!" He jammed the canister into the beast's mouth, then kicked it in the chest. It put its hands to its throat while he charged the weapon up. He shot at the Proton Canister, the pulse detonating the canister and blowing the monster's head apart.

Lita dropkicked another creature in the jaw, then performed a roundhouse kick on it, "You don't have to protect me all the time!" Dan reached back and threw all of his weight behind his fist punching a demon in the face, "Yes I do. That's my purpose!" She turned to him, "Is that all it is for you?"

Dan was shaking his hand from the punch when she said that. He turned to look at her, eyebrow raised, "What? What in the fuck are you going on about?" She glared at him, "Do you even care about me anymore?" Dan twitched in confusion, "Of course I do! Why in the hell do you think I'm defending you right now?" He looked behind her, raised the railgun, and shot the final creature flying toward her. She turned to the sound of the monster's corpse hitting the ground. He cocked the rifle again as he stated, "Case in point."

While they bickered the mace of the Draugr hit the ground behind Dan completely startling him. As his back was turned, the Draugr grabbed Lita with it's remaining hand. The Draugr was drooling as it looked at Lita with it's remaining eye, it clearly losing a great deal of it's mental acuity with half of its head missing. She struggled to get loose as Dan attempted to shoot the beast again. He pulled the trigger to have nothing happen. He looked into the clear window of the gun's tank. It was out of the gallium metal that made the projectiles, "Shit!" He threw the gun down and unhooked his particle thrower off his pack. He took aim, but once again, he couldn't get a clean shot.

_CLANG!_ Mercury Knight flew through and cleaved the monster's arm off. The hand hit the ground releasing Lita, her rolling out of the hand. The fingers of the hand twitched as she picked herself up, the hand slowly starting to crystallize in ice. With a clank of metal the discarded large yellow Ghost Trap landed in front of the Draugr, Egon holding onto the hand trigger, "Stand clear!"

The wedges of the trap doors opened allowing the proton vortex to flash upward. The Draugr looked down to it's doom just before Egon triggered the capture function. Like the sound of a jet engine roaring, the trap began pulling the Draugr's essence in turning it's body into dust. The doors on the trap closed, it beeping indicating a successful capture. The physicist picked up the smoking trap as Sailor Mercury finally walked up, her scanning the area with her minicomputer and visor. Mercury Knight joined her looking at his wrist mounted display, "That looks to be all of them."

Dan ran over to Lita and checked over her, him putting the particle thrower back on his pack as he bent down to pick her up, "You okay? Did it hurt you?" Lita looked to him after pushing off the pavement. She saw him put his hand out for her to take. She promptly pushed it away, "I don't need your help! I can get up on my own!" She turned away from him and stood. If she had looked at his face she would have seen his hurt expression.

Egon, Sailor Mercury, and Mercury Knight came to them as Mercury Knight addressed them, "Are you guys okay?" He saw a tension between them as Dan looked emotionally hurt and Lita looked upset, her arms crossed and back to him. He saw this and stalled, "Uh…" Without looking at anyone, Lita stormed off toward the firehouse.

Egon walked up to them after doubling back picking up Lita's trap rig and Proton Pistol, "What was all that about?"

"I donno!" Dan exclaimed, "She's royally pissed at me and I donno why. I think she shut me out," that was when he finally took notice of Mercury Knight, "Okay, two questions: Where's Roland, and who's the dufus in the coat?" Egon and Sailor Mercury looked a hare uncomfortable upon the questions being asked. The Knight cleared his throat, "Ummm, Dan?" The knight drew attention to the aquamarine blue embroidered insignia on the arm of the blue coat. It was the symbol of Mercury.

Dan finally realized what it meant, him looking up with an eyebrow raised, "_Roland?_" Dan gave a small apologetic laugh, remorse in his voice, "Well… welcome to the club, buddy."

Mercury Knight picked up the railgun off the ground as he started, "You were right; these things are after her. They changed their objective from me and Amy to her." Sailor Mercury looked between the two of them, "After her?" "After last night," Dan explained, "when Eduardo talked about the slash patterns in my back, I started thinking about the whole attack on us in Battery Park and everything that happened in the Mustang. Whoever is controlling these things is trying to get her. For what reason…" he shrugged, a stressed expression of confusion on his face.

Egon placed the equipment on the ground, "Perhaps it's for another sacrifice for the recorder." Egon's words shot an alarming chill up Dan's spine as his eyes widened. Mercury Knight winced, "Egon, _ex-nay_ on _acrifice-say_!" Egon looked at him confused for a second, but then realized what both that meant and what he had just done, "...Oops." Dan reached into his pocket and took out his keys, "Take the truck and pick her up. I'll walk back. I don't like what's going on, and the last thing I want is for her to be wandering around New York by herself," he handed the keys to Mercury Knight then turned to walk to the building. Sailor Mercury called out, "Where are you going?" He responded, "I gotta talk to Luna and Artemis."

As the Sailor Scout and her Knight watched him walk back to the main building entrance, Egon had taken a Petri dish and a pair of tweezers from his pocket. He knelt down to the Draugr's half-frozen limb and took a skin sample speaking to himself as he did, "Hmmm, a gratuitous amount of decay. Looks to have been dormant for some time." "Egon, we better get Lita and get her back," the Knight stated, "I agree with Dan; we better keep an eye on her." Egon laid the sample into the dish and closed it up, "Very well," he stood and placed the dish in his pocket, "Seeing as the beasts failed, the next avenue this person or persons can do is do the job themselves. We need to be diligent with who we interact with."

Sailor Mercury grabbed the Ghost Trap by the pile of dust that was the Draugr as Mercury Knight grabbed Lita's equipment. As they all walked back to the black F-150, the Sailor suited woman asked, "Exactly who can we trust?"

In the distance, a figure rounded a corner from an alleyway. They were dressed in all black with a helmet which covered their face. They knelt down and produced a camera with a telescopic lense. After a few clicks of the camera, it rounded back around as we see 4 letters on their back, but it's obscured. The figure walks down the alley and rounds another corner, disappearing from the scene.


	23. Set for Appointment

Chapter 23: Set For Appointment

Sunday June 29th, 2002

Stanhope Park Hyatt Hotel

2:18 PM

Mina sat on the window sill in the living room of the hotel overlooking Central Park, her knees to her chest and her arms around her legs. She looked out as the afternoon summer sky lit the treetops. Something had been on her mind for a good amount of the day, especially since last night when her and the other Scouts had went out with the new Ghostbusters. The feeling from the day before that was even more grand was when she first met…

Darien had stepped out of the bedroom and proceeded to the kitchenette to start the coffee machine when he noticed Mina peering off into the distance. The look on her face looked worried, "Hey, Mina." Mina jumped a start then looked in Darien's direction. She sighed and put her head into her hand, "Geez, Darien, you gave me a start. I thought you were…" she stopped short and took her head from her hand to look at him. Darien was a bit confused at first as he looked at her. She quickly changed the subject, "Never mind. You getting up just now?"

Darien nodded as he grabbed the complementary coffee beans from the bar counter and put them in the grinder, "Yeah. We're still a bit jet lagged. That and… Well, you know Serena."

"She didn't stay up all night watching local television here, too?"

He sighed, "Yeah." He started the grinder as Mina swung her legs away from the window and began walking her way across the large apartment-like room. She still couldn't believe the hotel she was staying at; the ornate European styling of the furniture made her feel as though she was living too good while Amy and Raye stayed at the old rundown firehouse the Ghostbusters operated in. She didn't mean to put down the Ghostbusters with her thoughts, but it was a rather elegant place she was, where the others were someplace so run down. She felt rather guilty about it.

She needed to ask someone what was on her mind, and she wasn't sure what to ask to where it would make sense. She watched as Darien stopped the grinder and started putting the grounds into the machine as she approached, "I was wondering something. Have you ever felt like someone you met is… I mean, I feel like… No, wait…" Darien turned to her to see she was having a hard time expressing herself. He had known Mina for a long time and knew she was never one to be shy with her words, but there was something he had noticed in the last few days being in New York, "There's something about that Eduardo guy that's been bothering you, hasn't there?"

She looked to him shocked he knew, but then softened when she thought about it, "That obvious, huh?" She sighed as she leaned on the counter, "I don't know why, but I've been able to, I donno, pluck the thoughts out of his head. The weird part is, every time he gets near me, there's this tension that rises. I can't explain it!"

That was when Darien put his hand to his temple as he sucked air through his teeth like he had the night before. He hunched over and put his free hand on the counter. Mina came up to him and looked him over, concern in her voice, "Darien? Darien, what's wrong?" "I don't know! It's happened more than once today!" His eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to work out why his head hurt, "I remember in the tower. I was possessed. Me and Dan were fighting. The thing that split me and the demon apart for a moment was his presence. His will to save Lita from me affected me. That was when I felt it…" his eyes snapped open. A look of sudden realization graced his face as he stood up straight, "Of course! I'm responsible!"

Mina kept looking on as he spoke becoming more lost as he spoke, "You're not making sense." "That was the catalyst! That was what Egon was talking about!" He stopped what he was doing and turned toward the door of the hotel suite. "W-what? Wait a minute!" Mina ran into his path and blocked the double doors leading into the suite, "Where are you going?"

"I remember it now! I have to go to the Ghostbusters' headquarters! Luna, Artemis, Egon, and Dan need to know."

"Wait a minute," Mina ran back to where her purse was and grabbed it, turning back toward the door, "I'll go with you. With everything going on, I'm not gonna let you go out by yourself."

"Shouldn't you stay here with Serena?"

"She should be fine," Mina slung her purse over her shoulder, "besides, nothing short of a tsunami will wake her up let alone get her out of _that_ bed."

Once outside, Darien and Mina hailed a cab. One stopped and the doorman opened the door for them as another cab pulled up behind it. The two of them had got in as the cab behind it had it's door open revealing Eduardo stepping out. He looked up at the awning and read the title of the hotel, "The Stanhope? Holy crap, how can they afford _this_ place?"

"Hey, Rockefeller!" Eduardo turned back to the cab he was in to see the front passenger window rolled down, the cabbie calling out, "You gonna pay for this ride, or what?"

Back inside Serena was in the King-sized bed still asleep. She snuggled the comforter as she lightly snored, every so often talking in her sleep, "Yes, I'll have another scoop of peppermint ice cream on my donut parfait." She was clearly having a happy dream.

She began to stir as she smelt coffee brewing. It took her a few minutes, but her eyes finally managed to open. She sat up, yawned, and stretched revealing her pink bunny-print pajamas. After she put her arms down she looked about the room and found she was alone, "Darien?" She stepped out of the room and into the main foyer and found it empty as well. She looked around for another moment, "Darien? Mina?" She rubbed her eyes and shuffled around the room a bit, "Huh. Where is everybody?"

There was a knock at the doors. She turned and walked to them, looking into the peephole to see a familiar face. She backed away from the door and rolled her eyes, "Oh great," she sighed, "the goat's here." She unlocked the door and opened it to see Eduardo just outside. She immediately asked, "What're you doin' here?"

"Look, _chica,_" Eduardo started right off the bat, "about last night, I was just ribbing you, okay? I don't mean anything by it."

"Really?" She said sarcastically, "And here everyone told me you were the charismatic one."

"Come on, I'm not here to make enemies," he pleaded, "All things considered, we got enough things that hate us. With teeth and claws, too." Serena heard his words and knew he meant it, her having her share of monsters being rather upset and vengeful towards her and the other Sailor Scouts. She nodded, "That is a good point. Still, what brings you here?"

There was that look again. That look of being unsettled as he needed to explain himself. She saw this and felt the worry radiate off him, "Eduardo?" He rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable the whole way, "I…" he looked the woman in her saffire-blue eyes. He almost felt an instant trust in her which alleviated his worry; he felt like he could tell her anything, which was rare for him. He seemed to straighten up a bit, "Can I come in?"

Dan faced the broken front doors of the building while inside the lobby. He was still in his Proton Pack folding his arms across his chest. He was stressed, "...So, that's where I'm at. With this nightmare going on, I feel like more than ever I have to watch after her. But the way she's acting..."

Nearby on the flower beds in the lobby, Luna and Artemis sat on the beds' edge and heard the story they have yet to be included in at this point. They heard the American man before them sigh and hang his head. The two cats looked at each other as they attempted to process what they just heard, Luna attempting to quell the man's tension, "That's quite the story, Dan, but you shouldn't let such a thing get between you two. Serena and Darien had the same circumstances as you at that time. Seeing that's common in our country…"

"It's not that," Dan began pacing off between the front doors and back, the cats finally seeing his face, "My family life was and still is… Complicated. What I had experienced makes me feel dirty, and now…" "But you're much more mature now," Artemis broke in, "as is Lita. It shouldn't matter." "You really have no idea who you're dealing with, Artie. They have no idea what was going on back then. These are people who will fill in gaps with bullshit if it means having a confirmation of their beliefs of me."

Luna began getting stern with him, "That doesn't mean you should feel any form of guilt for what you did! Your love is far older than anyone on this earth!" "I'm afraid it isn't going to get any older." That statement broke her sterness. Dan looked back to the two of them as the look of stress on his face worsened. His breaths started to become labored as he looked to have a thought come across his mind, "She said to me last week when we spoke to DyTyllio that…" he breathed through his nose before saying it, his voice cracked, "...That she hated me."

Luna looked pained by him stating that as Artemis's jaw dropped. He shook his head in disbelief, "That can't be true!" "It is." Artemis looked to his fellow guardian and saw the somber look on her face. She sighed, "Lita was very angry and overwhelmed with everything that happened with her grandparents. She had nowhere else to go. She came back to Tokyo and lived with Raye in the temple for a year…"

Sunday November 14th, 1999

Cherry Hill Temple

9:25 AM

Two bags. That was all that was left of her life. In the weeks following her grandparents' deaths, the local banks foreclosed on the house and forced her out. She stood outside her friend's temple, having already called and spoke to her in tears.

The Cherry Blossom trees had already lost their leaves; the autumn time of year reflecting her pain. She stood just outside the front steps of the shrine as she felt a terrible guilt for having to impose on her friend's family. Alas, clouds gathered overhead signally their late-season rainfall in the distance. She picked up what was left of her worldly possessions and proceeded toward the temple doors.

The months proceeded as Lita Kino sat some nights behind Raye in the main prayer temple as she continued her fire readings. She sat with her knees to her chest watching as her friend performed her chant. The tension some nights became so bad Raye lost focus multiple times leaving her to worry if Lita would ever recover. She rarely spoke during this time.

Sunday May 8th, 2000

8:12 PM

One particular night, all the Sailor Scouts were having one of their meetings; one of the rare times Amy was able to make it, being home from University. As the others spoke, her silence in the room was becoming deafening. All Lita had done was stare off into the tabletop in Raye's room as the others spoke.

The cat guardians were present as they themselves engaged in conversation as Lita sat silent. She was numb. In her time at the temple, Lita had managed to find work in a small diner in Shibuya and was starting to slowly make her own way back out on her own, but in the meantime, she was still destroyed. Winter was coming to an end, and she was now another year older. She was growing a pain in her heart and everyone in the room felt it.

The others around her tried talking to her asking if she was okay, but it was too much. All she said was that she was okay, then stood and walked out. It wasn't a convincing answer to anyone involved. Luna had looked around the room and saw that the girls were unsure of what to do. She took it upon herself to follow the teenager out of the room.

In the guest room, Luna managed to find where Lita had walked away to. She found her sitting on the end of the bedroll looking into the darkness around her, again with her knees to her chest. The black cat walked in slowly as to make sure she didn't startle the girl, "Lita?" She asked softly.

There was a whimper in her voice as she responded harshly, "I said I was fine!" She buried her head into her knees as she started to sniffle. She didn't look at the cat as she tried to convince the feline, but Luna already knew what she was to see on her face. She walked in further and sat beside her by the bed. The both of them sat in silence a moment more as Luna looked for the words.

She sighed as she started, "I will never truly understand the pain you feel, I'll admit. I had never lost as much as you, but even though I should be grateful it hurts me that I can't help you. Your fellow Scouts feel the same. Artemis, too. We can only imagine how bad it is, that's why we're _trying_ to understand."

"He abandoned me." Luna looked to the girl as she lifted her head, her face soaked in her tears, "Who abandoned you?" "You _know_ who!" Luna didn't know who she was referring to at first, but as the tears streamed down Lita's face she put her paw to her mouth, "No… Lita, you can't mean that!"

"When I needed him most," she spoke as she cried, her speech being uneven, "he never wrote back. I wanted so badly to tell him what was going on, but he never wrote me!"

"Why didn't you write _him_?" Lita stopped for a moment and looked to the cat asking her the question. There was what looked like a conflict going on in her mind and it was telegraphing on her face. The cat guardian knew this was going to be a hard answer to swallow, but she knew the teenager before her was emotionally destroyed; no answer was going to be overtly rational, "I'm so angry at him. I told him where I was, I told him what I was doing, and nothing!"

"Did you tell him _exactly _what you were doing?" Lita went to speak, but the tears started to well up in her eyes again. She let loose and started crying hard into her knees again as she tried to speak, "I didn't want to hurt him, but he forgot about me! I don't have anyone left! He's like all of them!" She picked up one of her shoes from the floor beside her and threw it across the room, "I _hate him!"_

"No you don't!" The cat walked in front of her and became stern with her, "You don't like letting people see you hurt! It took you years to finally tell us what had happened to your parents. Lita, you have to understand that we know you omit things to make sure no one worries about you, but it's making you your own worst enemy! It's not Dan's fault you haven't received anything from him. After all, you lost your apartment during all of this; how do you know he didn't try and it went nowhere?"

Lita was gobsmacked. She had hated the man who cared about her outside of her family for months now. After she signed her grandfather's no -resuscitation order, she kept questioning if she made the right decision. Every time she asked, she always wondered what Dan would tell her. The more she asked, the more an answer wouldn't come to her, and the more she hated Dan for it. Now being confronted with the possibility Dan hadn't been able to get through combined with her not telling him outright in a letter where she was and what was going on…

"Do you remember how the rest of the Scouts met him?" Lita looked at Luna as Luna asked her. The cat sat down and looked toward the room's ceiling prompting her to follow suit. That was the moment she noticed some of the wood making up the supports of the room looked newer. There was even a badly painted spot on the ceiling where a burn mark was visible. Lita's face changed, "Isn't this…?" "Yes. This is where Dan crashed into the roof after one of those creatures threw him and Dr. Stantz from the park. I remember Artemis and myself standing and hiding away as you all confronted him."

"I remember," she cleared the tears from her eyes as she looked again at the burn mark, "He used his Proton Pack to get out of the sheets he was tangled in. That's where the beam hit," more tears came out as a small laugh came out, "Raye was _sooo_ angry at him."

"Do you remember what happened after?"

Lita sniffled again as she recalled, "Yeah. Dan ran out to find Ray in one of the Cherry Blossom trees hanging by a trap cord," A very small smile came to her face, "Dan asked me to help untie him. I stood on his shoulders and helped let Ray down. When I let go of the cord, we both lost our balance and I landed on top of him. I remember his green eyes…"

"It was that look on both your faces I remembered so clearly. Me and Artemis kept watch on you from afar and I clearly remember the looks on your faces. It was real, and we could see it," Luna walked to Lita's side and sat beside her, "That man will always care about you. His heart is only for you, and he would follow you to the ends of the Earth to protect you."

"We all should be so lucky!" Lita turned and found all of her fellow Scouts standing in the doorway of the room, Raye's voice projecting softly as she spoke, "We know it's been hard, but we all want to be there for you. Remember, we're your friends, too."

Serena spoke her piece, too, "You'll never truly be alone. As long as he's in your heart, you'll always love him. Never let doubt in him hurt you like this again." Raye turned to her surprised, "Wow, Meatballhead, I very rarely say it, but that's well put!"

Serena clearly became annoyed at the utterance of her nickname, "Then how about _not_ insulting me when I'm right about something?" "You have to earn your way to that, klutz!" The bickering started again and Amy and Mina looked to each other and rolled their eyes. Mina walked up and held out her hand, "Come on. We'll ditch these two and see if the ice cream stand is still open."

"I get it, you talked her out of it," Dan had taken off his pack and had sat down on the flower planter's edge along with the cats, "That doesn't mean she doesn't have the capacity to do it again. On top of this, I get this feeling she's angry about something else and it's just…" he stood back up and paced a bit more, "She started getting like this after the Draugr threw me. That and after last night I feel like she's getting mad at me to push me away from her."

"She's afraid you're going to get hurt because of her," Artemis jumped down from the short wall and joined the Ghostbuster at his side, "She cares about you so much she keeps forgetting that the Solar Knights are supposed to protect their respective princesses at the cost of their lives."

"She hasn't forgotten," he stated bluntly, "that's why she's doing this." "Unfortunately, he's right, Artemis." Luna followed suit and jumped down, "We know what Lita is like when she becomes upset or scared."

Artemis rolled his eyes, "Boy, do we."

"If she does this…" Dan ran his fingers through his blonde hair, distress on his face, "I feel like she's being targeted. After the attack on us last night, and what happened out here… it's getting bad. I can't be sure I can protect her if she starts being rash in her judgement."

"She'll come to her senses soon enough," the white cat assured him, "just be with her. You have another Knight with you now, as well as the Scouts. You'll all be able to protect her if need be."

Dan walked back and picked up his pack, "I'm not so sure of that. I keep being told when the time comes that I'll have all that I need," he slung the pack over his shoulder with one strap, "Instead, I feel like I'm about to lose it all." Luna was confused by that, "What makes you believe that?" "In my life," he said, "when has that _never_ been the case?" He turned away from the cats and started walking out.

The lone Ghostbuster walked his way away from the large building and began heading toward his headquarters. The cats watched as he walked, an almost defeated shuffle to his step. It looked as though he was set for an appointment with someone - or some_thing_ \- that was bound to unravel his life once again. Years ago he lost his apartment. Then he lost his girlfriend. He had lost his job twice. He then lost his family. He was a good man trying to do good things, but if there was anything that life hated it was a good man doing good things. In trying to do good, he was about to be punished once again.

This time, the cost would be too high.


	24. Bridging The Gap

Chapter 24: Bridging The Gap

Serena sat across the table in the hotel, coffee cup before her in front of a man she barely knew and was even made fun of by the night before. Eduardo sat before a woman that up until two weeks ago didn't exist to him, even in the informational sense. Somehow, by some small miracle, they not only trusted each other, but were extremely open with each other, "That seems to explain a lot," Serena said to the New Yorker, "So, this dream to you was some sort of warning?"

Eduardo looked into his coffee mug and watched as the steam rose into the air, "My whole life I felt this odd feeling that if I were to, I donno, be put into a position of authority, all I'm gonna do is screw it up. After what happened to my father…" he couldn't finish his sentence. He sighed as he picked up his coffee and took a sip.

The story was extremely familiar to the point that Serena felt uncomfortable about it. It was clear there was something about this hispanic man in her presence that was making her think of Dan and what Lita had told her the day the Sailor Scouts met the Ghostbusters. She wasn't one to draw conclusions - mostly because it got her into trouble in her youth - but it was hard to miss this time around. She still had to ask, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

Eduardo put down his mug slowly, him shaking his head in confusion, "I donno. There's something about you that makes me trust you. Call me _loco_, but there's something familiar about you. When I look at you, the word, 'Serenity' keeps coming to mind. I donno know if it's just your name, but…" That was when an alarm went off in her head as her eyes went wide looking to the man that kept looking at the table. He finally looked up to her and asked, "Does that make any sense to you?"

Serena very calmly stood from her chair, revealing she was still in her pajamas, "It makes more sense than it should. Eduardo, I think we should go to your headquarters. There's something…" that was when beeps were heard in the next room. She looked back toward the bedroom and knew what the beeps were. Eduardo watched her do this, "What is that? A pager? Is your guy a doctor?"

She looked back, "Um… Something like that. I'll be back!" She ran toward the bedroom, closing the doors behind her. He raised an eyebrow, "That was a weird response." That was when his cell phone went off. Pulling it out of his pocket he looked at the screen. It said, "WORK" on the display. That was usually a bad sign, "Aw, crap."

In the bedroom, Serena opened her purse and retrieved her communicator. Turning it on, Amy's face appeared on the screen, "Amy? What's the matter?" _"Serena, you might want to start heading toward the Ghostbusters' headquarters. We have an announcement we have to make."_ "Announcement?" The woman asked, confused. _"Yes. We're going to reveal ourselves to the new team of Ghostbusters."_

"Amy, are you _nuts?_" Serena was not liking this idea, "Why would we want to…" _"There's a reason for it. Last night, their headquarters was attacked, and me and Raye had to transform."_ "What? Why?" _"That's right, you weren't here. We learned the flying creatures were Negamonsters."_

Serena's jaw dropped, "No way! I thought I destroyed the Negaforce!"

_"That's why the Ghostbusters' equipment is ineffective against them. What's more, Raye just got back here and told us something that put all the pieces together for us. Dan's recalling all of the other Ghostbusters right now."_

"Uh…" Serena suddenly felt her chest clench, "Eduardo's here right now. That, and Mina and Darien aren't here. Amy, you might wanna hear this..."

_"What in the hell are you doing at Darien and Serena's?"_ Eduardo was uneased talking with Dan on his phone. The man rolled his eyes in a stressful manner as he looked to the ceiling, wondering if he should say it. He didn't have time when Dan started again, _"You know what? It doesn't matter. If Serena is there, the two of you hop a cab and get here ASAP."_

Upon hearing that, Eduardo grew concerned, "A-are you sure I should do that?" _"Yes. She has to come here, too. I leave it in your hands."_ He was still worried. There was something in his brain that made him terrified to have Serena with him. Nevertheless, without much hesitation, he sighed as he gave his answer, "Yeah, alright. We'll be there soon." "_Alright. Talk to ya then." _The phone clicked and the call ended. He slowly put his phone in his pocket as a bad feeling started creeping up his spine.

"I thought Egon didn't want us in today?" Kylie was at home in her apartment on the phone with Janine. She sat on the edge of her bed with the landline phone on one side, and her cat Pagan on the other. The black and white cat laid beside her as she spoke again, "What changed?"

Janine reiterated what had happened, _"The firehouse was attacked last night, and another of those big hulking Norse monsters was on its way to the firehouse this afternoon when Dan, Lita, Roland, and even Egon went and stopped it."_

"I know about the attack last night," she said, somewhat pained by the memory of what happened after, "I was there holding the line, but another Draugr made its way up?"

_"It's obvious we have a massive problem," _the secretary's voice projected stress as she spoke, _"Egon's requested that if you have any spare equipment at home, you bring it back. We're going to need all the traps we can find."_ The flip-flopping was causing the goth to pinch the bridge of her nose. She sighed, "Alright. I'll get there as soon as I can."

_"Watch yourself out there," _Janine's voice placed weight on the words, _"Egon's saying these things are getting violent. They're even starting to target us."_ Kylie's eyes popped open and she released the bridge of her nose when she heard that. Now she knew it was serious; reading up on how the Original Ghostbusters we targeted in the past. She nodded, even though Janine couldn't see it, "I will."

_"We'll see you here." _The other end of the phone clicked. Kylie placed the handset on the hook, then turned to her cat, petting it, "Sorry, Pagan, mama's gotta go to work."

Roughly 10 minutes later, Kylie stepped out of her building wearing her full uniform; trap rig, trap, and Proton Pistol. In her hands was a full sized Proton Pack, "When he said all of it, I'm sure he means it. Geez," she hefted the pack up a bit to get a better grip on it, "I'm turning into Roland taking all this stuff home." With that, she walked to her bus stop.

Darien and Mina had been stuck in midtown traffic for some time. Darien had been fidgeting in his seat looking outside the cab as he stayed quiet. Mina had been looking over and watching him as he had his head into his hand. Something was bothering him as though a memory resurfaced.

"Darien?" she started softly, "Darien, what's this all about? Why are we going to the Ghostbusters HQ? Does it have to do with those headaches you keep getting?"

"Every time you mention Eduardo, it would start slow, then it would ramp up suddenly," Darien explained as he rubbed his temple, "There's something about him that's reminding me of Dan. I think I know what it is."

"You said you were responsible. Responsible for what?" Darien looked to Mina, pulling his hand away from his head a moment. He looked to the back of the seat in front of him in worried thought a moment later. He had a look on his face that spoke volumes, "I'm…"

The squealing of tires was heard as the cab came to a sudden halt. The Indian driver screamed in Hindi as he slammed on the brakes. Mina and Darien were thrown forward as their seatbelts caught them. Once the cab finally stopped, Darien yelled out, "Hey, what's with the sudden…"

CRUNCH! The roof of the cab went missing as glass shattered around them. The cabbie quickly undid his seatbelt and fled the cab, screaming out, "Forget fare! One for all, and all for one's self!" After uncovering themselves, they watched the Indian driver flee with the other people in the street. Darien couldn't help but comment, "Now I know why New Yorkers make fun of their taxi drivers."

The wind picked up above them as the winged monsters hovered, cackling as they looked down at their prey. Mina and Darien looked at each other, then quickly unbuckled their seatbelts. The monsters dove toward them as they narrowly escaped the cab out their doors. The weight and inertia of the beast slamming into the vehicle caused all four tires on the cab to blow. The two of them began running in line of the crowd away from the beasts causing the mayhem.

In another cab a few streets back, Eduardo and Serena were making their same trek toward the firehouse. Serena was now wearing a simple white dress under a faded denim jacket, her ditching the pink pajamas. Eduardo was still engaged with her in a somewhat intrusive conversation, "Okay, so your guy…" "His name," Serena interrupted, "is Darien." "Okay, _Darien_, is not a doctor, how can you afford the Stanhope Hyatt? Isn't that place, like, $1,000 a night?"

"Darien is working toward being a doctor," she sighed as she looked to the floor of the cab, "His mentor had to cancel his trip to New York right as we were planning our trip. He had already paid everything in full; so he allowed us to use his reservation."

"Dan said you two were a couple," Eduardo looked away from the window, "how far back you guys been together?"

"About six years."

"_That_ far back?" Eduardo's eyebrow raised, "Dan and Darien look almost the same age." "They are the same age. They're both 26-27." "How old are you?" Serena looked to the Ghostbuster beside him with an offended look on her face, but saw how disturbingly Eduardo looked at her. She almost felt interrogated, "I-I'm 21. I met him back when I was 14."

7 years. Eduardo was no math wiz, but he knew how far back Dan met Lita. If Lita and Serena were the same age… "Oh… My… _God._ That's why…"

Suddenly the cab began rocking side to side. The rocking became more violent as outside the cab other vehicles began flipping on their sides. The Ukrainian cab driver saw what was going on outside and began ducking in his seat, "Coming in!" It was clear he didn't speak English.

The cab flipped onto its side. Serena slid from her side of the cab and fell onto Eduardo who was now laying on his door. Serena sat up, "That hurt. Good thing I landed on something soft." "Yeah," Eduardo groaned, "_Me!_" He unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled himself from under her, "Why weren't you wearing your seatbelt?"

The cab shook with a thud as the both of them looked above them and saw a Man-Bat screeching, it standing on the pillars of the vehicle's doors. Serena screamed in terror as she grabbed Eduardo by his jacket. Eduardo himself screamed like a girl as he covered his eyes with his arms. The beast took flight, the powerful wind of it's takeoff knocking the vehicle on its roof.

The bottom weight of the cab collapsed the roof's pillars and shattered the car's side windows and the front windshield. Serena, Eduardo, and the cab driver found themselves on the roof of the cab, disoriented from the chaos. Between the front and back of the cab was a plastic divider that was meant to protect the driver. The two passengers called out to the cabbie pleading for help. The cab driver looked to the busted front windshield, then looked back to his fare, "As they say old country, 'No get caught hitchhike with blue suit in Leningrad'!"

Eduardo and Serena looked at each other perplexed, then back to the driver, speaking in unison, "_What?!_"

The driver crawled out of the cab and started to flee. Eduardo screamed after him, "Hey! Help us outta here, you commie bastard!" He punched the plexiglass in rage. Serena looked about the cab and found that the only window that hasn't completely collapsed was the rear window. Eduardo waved his hand around as he noticed Serena beginning to crawl toward the cracked window, "What're ya doin'?"

She pressed against the window pushing against it, "We gotta push it out!"

"Get back!" She turned back to Eduardo and saw he pointed his feet toward the window. She backed away as he prepared himself and moved into position. While laying on his back, he started kicking the window, his boots clopping against the tempered glass. After several kicks, it looked as though the effort was doing no good, "Why isn't it breaking?" Serena asked, worry filling her voice.

"A lot of these cabs are old cop cars," Eduardo answered as he delt several more kicks to the window, "They laminate the rear window to deflect bullets from behind. So if a cop is at a traffic stop, no one can shoot the cop in his squad when he isn't looking."

There was another problem approaching. Through the other broken windows, a horrible smell began lingering into the cab. Serena instantly became grossed out, "Ew!" She slapped her hands over her nose and mouth, "What is that?" Eduardo smelled it. He stopped kicking and recognized the odor, "Aw, man, don't tell me…"

THUD! From outside the window the both of them witnessed something bobbing up and down behind the other vehicles on the road. THUD! THUD! The object became more clear over the horizon of traffic. A Draugr wearing a helmet and no facial hair approached, it carrying a large sword. Eduardo looked back to Serena, "You gotta help me!" Serena had her eyes bugging out of her head looking at the beast, "Eduardo? W-what is that?" "Our funeral if you don't help me!"

The Draugr approached, it stepping on cars and small pick-up trucks as it approached. It drooled as he looked to the people running away from it. It failed to pay attention and ended up walking to the back of a semi-truck. It lost whatever patience it had and proceeded to grab the trailer. It picked it up and threw it across the road into a building. People narrowly missed the abandoned truck crashing back into the ground as well as the debris from the now smashed building.

Serena was now helping Eduardo kick the rear window of the cab out, but both of them were kicking out of sync with each other almost panicking as they kicked frantically. Eduardo saw how quickly they weren't getting anywhere, "Wait a minute! Same time. Ready?" Serena looked to him and nodded. He started to command, "And… Kick!" Both made contact. It shifted the window. "Kick!" This strike dislodged the window around it's seal. "Come on, one more. Kick!" The window popped out of the back. The two of them rolled over and started to crawl out when they saw the Draugr was nearly on top of them.

_"Dios bueno!"_ Eduardo saw the Draugr's foot about to crush the cab and saw they were only halfway out of the vehicle. He grabbed Serena by the back of her denim jacket she was wearing and with all his strength threw her clear of the cab. It wasn't much; Eduardo wasn't over-strong, but he managed to get her away just in time. One of his feet were still inside the rear window opening when the Draugr stomped on the vehicle. The metal folded in a way that trapped his right foot. He was able to flip over and tried to pull his foot loose, but to no avail, "Crap, I'm stuck!"

The Draugr heard him. The beast turned and leered at him, a blank expression on his face. Something was with this Draugr that made it different than the others so far.

Serena turned over and saw the beast staring at the Ghostbuster. She saw him sweating bullets as he laid on the ground under the trunk lid of the cab. It was clear he was terrified. She scrambled to her feet and backed away a moment. She watched as he turned back over and yelled out to her, "Go! _Run!_"

That didn't sound like something Eduardo would say. Even _he_ knew it.

Nevertheless, Serena stood by. She had a sudden and quick debate in her mind. She didn't want to reveal herself to Eduardo, but she didn't have much of a choice. Still, not only was he a Ghostbuster, he was a friend of the team, and if what Amy said was true…

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friend!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a heart-shaped compact. Eduardo saw her raise her arm with the device in her hand, a sudden flair of panic rising within him, "What are you doing? Get outta here before…"

Before he could finish, Serena called out, "Moon… Cosmic… Power!" She waved her hand over the compact and it opened, a pink heart-shaped crystal shining out. Serena was suddenly enveloped in light, her body suddenly surrounded by ribbons of energy changing her appearance. Eduardo squinted as the light intensified. It became so bright, he covered his eyes with his hand.

The Draugr grunted as it covered its eyes from the light, it stumbling back as the light pulsed through the damaged street.

The light finally died down as Eduardo peeked through his fingers. As he did, he heard a voice call out, "Destroying a major city and hurting people are not very nice things to do! Being dead is no excuse to be evil!" Eduardo's eyes finally adjusted as he saw before him another woman in a sailor suit, it being trimmed in red and blue with a bow on her chest.

He looked at her and realized what he was looking at; it was the same design costume as the two women from last night; it was the same as the woman running away from Chelsea the day Lita came to the firehouse and Dan collapsed. Suddenly he noticed two things; the compact Serena was holding was now on this woman's chest, and she was standing in the same spot the woman she was traveling with was standing just a moment before. There was one last thing he noticed…

The buns on the top of her head, now encrusted with red jewels with long strands of blonde hair coming from them. It hit him like a pallet of bricks, "Holy sh…"

"I'm Sailor Moon! I will right wrongs and triumph over evil," she pointed at the Draugr, "and that means _you_!"

"It took this long," Eduardo commented calmly, "but Ghostbusting has finally driven me insane."


	25. Independent Verification

Chapter 25: Independent Verification

The bus was trapped on the road. Kylie sat and stared out the window as she waited for the vehicle to start moving again when she noticed the tension everyone else around her gave off. They were looking at her uniform and staring at the nuclear accelerator beside her. She got tired of the eyes on her and turned to her watchers, "What? What are you all staring at?"

Almost everyone looked away, embarrassed they got caught gawking at the goth. All accept one person. She stood up and approached her as she started shouting, "What am I staring at? I'm looking at a con artist!" Kylie rolled her eyes. She knew what was coming; it wasn't the first time it's happened, either. _Great, _she thought to herself, _another public transport preacher. _The woman continued, "How the hell can you honestly think people are stupid enough to buy into your bullshit?"

Kylie grunted as she became annoyed, "Look, believe what you want; there is no Church of Ghostbusting. I'm just trying to go to work."

"Doing what?" The woman boomed, "Pilfering some little old lady's social security? Convincing major city officials to give you government money? You may have convinced the weak minded, you haven't convinced me!" People on the bus began cheering on the insane woman's rantings. Kylie felt surrounded.

THUD! THUD! The whole bus shook as everyone took their attention from the two women bickering to the windows. The ranting woman also looked out the window as a large humanoid form walked past, it carrying a flail. The bus rocked as the monster took steps on the crowded street, the smell of decay penetrating into the interior. People gagged as the odor filled the bus, subsequently the terror filling their eyes.

The woman ranting at Kylie watched the creature walk by the bus, looking at the weapon in its hands, "What the hell is that?"

Kylie stood and took her PKE meter off her belt, responding in kind, "That is a Draugr; he's here to convince you he exists." She turned on the meter and immediately cocked an eyebrow, "That can't be right! The PKE is localized to the Draugr! Wait a minute," she fine tuned the meter and saw something that didn't make sense, "There's another PKE signature; it's acting like a shield…"

"Are you gonna do something, or what?" Kylie looked back at the woman who was raving at her, now clearly worried. "Oh, absolutely," Kylie answered with mocking disdain, putting her meter away and grabbing the spare pack, "but only because you asked so nicely."

It was from the corner of her eye she saw something in the crowd. Two people she recognized in the crowd standing behind a car. Everyone else was running toward the monster as though they were running from another. She turned back to the window and realized… "Oh, no!"

Darien and Mina fled through the street with the bulk of the crowd. Behind a vehicle, they stopped and looked back to find the monsters weren't behind them. The both of them took a breath as they watched the people flee, "My God," Darien exclaimed, "it's exactly like Venice! Here, then gone!"

Mina began to cough as she covered her nose, "Whoa! What's that smell?" The sudden uptick in foot traffic from the opposite direction immediately made her forget about the smell when she also noticed hard shakes to the ground. She turned and found another problem behind them.

A large, Norse problem.

She quickly grabbed Darien's shirt sleeve, "Da-Darien?!" He turned to her and saw panic on her face, then looked to what she was looking at. A Draugr with long white hair and a Fu Manchu dragging a flail-type mace behind it was walking toward them.

Without mincing words, the Draugr whipped the flail overhead and the spiked ball of the weapon smashed into the hood of the car they stood in front of, the vehicle's engine breaking open and all its fluids pooling on the ground. Mina and Darien had ducked as the weapon was flung in their direction. The Draugr jerked the weapon pulling the spiked device back, the car's hood going with it then dislodging as the ball was ready for another swing. The Draugr loomed at the two of them and growled, _"You will draw the heroes out nicely!" _It swung its weapon, the ball reaching its peak. They braced themselves…

A high pitched whirling was heard followed by a yellow beam of energy flying out and wrapping around the flail's mace, it suspended in the air. Mina and Darien heard a familiar voice, "I knew it! Even their weapons are Ecto-Charged!" They uncovered themselves and saw Kylie holding onto the beast's weapon with her Proton Pistol's stream. The both of them called out, "Kylie!"

The beast lost its grip of the flail as the handle slipped out of its hand, the particle stream holding it in the air. The Draugr, its balance thrown catawampus from its weapon leaving its control, fell to its knee and braced itself with a free hand. The beast impacting the ground shook it, Darien and Mina steadying themselves while still crouched down. The beast began picking itself up as Darien picked his friend beside him up and they began running to the Ghostbuster's position.

"What do we do?" Mina asked, her and Darien standing to each side of Kylie, "Its gonna get back up!" "Not likely!" Kylie had a smirk creeping onto her face, "Watch this!" She rose the pistol which dragged the flail upward into the air. Just as the Draugr pushed himself up enough to stand, Kylie yelled out, "Hey, ugly!" The Draugr looked to her just as she powered down the stream. The flail's mace dropped square on the monster's head, the of the spikes drilling into its skull. It collapsed.

Mina began to calm a bit as she watched the Draugr hit the ground. After a moment, Kylie holstered her pistol as Mina asked, "Is… is it dead?" "It was dead to begin with," the goth answered, her again pulling the PKE meter off her belt, "If you mean is it's not gonna get up again, can't be sure," she ran the meter back over the beast, the look of confusion on her face, "What the hell? This other signal; where's it coming from?"

Mina suddenly gripped her upper arms and shivered, her eyes wide as a sudden spasm of terror washed over her. She gasped in fright, then shook her head in confusion. Darien and Kylie looked to her as she did this, concern emanating from Darien's voice, "Mina, what's wrong?"

She looked wide-eyed to the both of them, "I don't know! I suddenly felt terrified out of nowhe…" she stopped mid sentence and choked before screaming out, "Serena, Run! _Run!"_

Darien shook his head in surprise at the utterance of his fiancée's name. Kylie shared in the surprise by cocking an eyebrow at the woman. Mina slapped her hand over her mouth as though it was an involuntary impulse making her the most confused of all of them. She looked to the both of them and uncovered her mouth, "Darien, Serena is with Eduardo a block and a half back!"

Kylie was starting to see a pattern, concluded almost immediately after she attempted to scan Mina and found nothing. On top of that, Darien suddenly put his hand to his temple, flinching as though he had a sudden pain in his head, much like he had the night before. It made the event even more unusual, but what happened next made her completely realize what was happening. On the meter, something came onto the display for only a brief moment, then was gone. Then it popped up again, again briefly. It looked like it was bouncing off the second PKE signal surrounding the Draugr. Then it came out of Darien's mouth, him wide eyed…

"Serena just transformed."

Mina added, "She did it right in front of Eduardo! There's another one of those things attacking!" They looked at each other, the both of them realizing what was happening. Darien began looking around the area and found a street bike laying on its side not far away. He ran to it and proceeded to get it upright to get onto it as Mina also joined him on the back of the bike.

Kylie looked at the two annoyed, "Hey, stop!" They looked back at her as she walked forward, the meter trained on them. She turned the dial on the side turning up the gain. She noticed there was a blank spot on the display right where they stood. She looked at them and growled, "So that's it! Not ectoplasmic, but still emanating PKE!" She put the meter back and grabbed her pistol again, "You're with those two from last night, aren't you?"

Mina looked over Darien's shoulder, him looking back to her almost confused. They looked back to Kylie as Mina asked, "What do you mean 'Those two'?"

"We were under attack; those damn bat-things attacked the firehouse and nearly nuked us until two women wiped them out! The ones in the body suits and the skirts!" Kylie's words made the two grow wide-eyed again as they again looked at each other, Mina saying it out loud, "Why would they do that?"

Darien winced and turned away from behind him. There was a bad sense of urgency, but he knew, "We have to tell her," he looked back over to the Ghostbuster, "We're your friends. Egon and Dan saved our lives when everything else failed. Our powers can't stop ghosts," he averted his eyes, "We owe the Ghostbusters our lives," he started the bike and revved it before speaking over it's motor, "Understand we're on your side."

Mina put her arms around Darien's waist as he began shifting, getting ready to ride off when the whirling noise started again, Kylie raising the pistol, "Hold it right there! You're not gonna move one bit until… until…" Kylie couldn't come up with a threat, but she kept the pistol trained. Darien lowered the kickstand on the bike and dismounted, Mina releasing him. Kylie was really nervous as he slowly approached her. In her state, she began to ramble, "The both of you are psychokinetic blank spots; even the living give off PKE!"

As he walked closer, he asked her, "That means one thing then, doesn't it?"

After a moment, Kylie started thinking about it out loud, "There's no being that can exist without energy emanation, so either the meters are broken, or…" a look of eureka graced her face, "Or Egon…"

Darien was now before Kylie. He slowly raised his hand and placed it atop her pistol causing Mina to flinch. He very slowly lowered it to where Kylie stopped resisting. She dropped the particle thrower to her side and looked the man in his blue eyes as she asked softly, "Who are you? _What_ are you?"

"We're the people you had dinner with last night. We're friends of the Original Ghostbusters. We're people in your company's debt," Darien sighed, "And we may be your best hope to stop this."

Kylie was hesitant. She was trying to process what just happened before her, the information she received… she still didn't understand. _Their powers don't work on ghosts?_ She thought, _Then how did they stop those creatures last night where the packs couldn't? That would mean…_ "Oh no!"

Darien walked to where Kylie set the full sized pack down and picked it up. He strapped it on and proceeded to walk back to the still running motorcycle, "Eduardo's going to need this equipment. There's another of these things where he is," he pointed to the Draugr on the ground. He mounted the bike as Mina again grabbed ahold of Darien, this time holding the Proton Pack. He popped the clutch and revved the throttle again making the bike take off down the road.

Kylie was beside herself. She began thinking about the unexplained things that have happened in the last 2-3 weeks and starting piecing things together. She wasn't sure who these women were, but if Eduardo saw one of them shortly after that unexplained pillar of light shot into the sky, Dan collapsing shortly after…

Tuesday, June 18th 2002

Chelsea Neighborhood

4:27 PM

The Ecto-1 followed behind FDNY fire trucks and a city plow truck as they rounded the corner. The damage was extensive; cars destroyed and crushed; giant holes in the ground; buildings collapsed. Garrett looked out his window and saw the destruction, "Yep! Dan's definitely been through here; recognize his handy work!" Kylie leaned in from her seat over the dashboard and saw the damage as well, "There was a _huge_ fight here."

Roland noticed something ahead as he saw black smoke rising into the air. After clearing a building, he saw the remains of Dan's truck, vehicle crushed and on fire, "Oh my God!" The vehicles ahead of the Ectomobile parted ways and he saw Eduardo before him leaning over someone…

It was Dan.

"Oh, no," he uttered, putting the Cadillac in park. The panic began to set in as he shouted, "We have a man down!" Garrett's eyes went wide, "_What_?" Roland quickly stepped out and Garrett deployed his ramp, Garrett yelling out, "Call Egon!" Kylie nodded as she grabbed the handset for the Ectomobile's radio, "Ecto-1 to Headquarters!"

Garrett was maneuvering around all the debris in the road when he rolled over a scrap of sheet metal. The noise sounded off to him causing him to stop and back up. He leaned down and picked up the foil-like material, "Holy…" he looked around and found pieces of what looked like an exploded Proton Pack, the remains of several Proton Canisters peppered throughout the area. He looked back to the piece in his hand and put it together, "He detonated his pack?" He looked to the burning wreck that was his truck and raised an eyebrow, "And he destroyed his truck? Something doesn't add up here."

Roland ran toward Eduardo who was now surrounded by EMTs around Dan's body. Eduardo was shaking him vigorously trying to wake him up, "Come on, man! Wake up, wake up, _wake up!_" "Eduardo!" Roland called to him, "What happened?"

Eduardo looked up and started stuttering as he spoke, "I-I-I don't know! H-he was walkin' and talkin' one minute, then h-he was down on the ground!" He started to panic, "I-I think he's dead! Like, actually dead!" An EMT kelt down and checked Dan's pulse, shortly after putting the back of his hand to Dan's mouth. He looked to the two Ghostbusters, "He's alive, but we have to evac to a hospital _right now_."

Kylie climbed out of Ecto-1 and ran toward Roland, "Wait, check his background PKE level! Egon wants to know what happened before they move him!" In her hand was a PKE meter. Roland looked to the meter, then to her, "That's not the same meter, is it?"

She remembered just minutes before they got there. The huge pillar of light that didn't register on both their meters. She shook her head as she knelt down, "No, I grabbed a new one from the back." She began scanning Dan. As she scanned, she registered something extremely weird. Dust on his uniform was giving off the same signal as the Draugr that they read from almost a mile away, but Dan had no signal. His biomedibolic signal didn't exist. It was like residual PKE hanging suspended over the shape of a human body, but the body wasn't there. She blinked, "What the hell?"

"What?" Eduardo asked nervously, "_What?_ Is he gonna come back as a zombie and eat us?!"

Kylie fired back, "Eduardo, will you stop being a moron?" She looked back to Roland, "I think this thing is busted, too! I can't read Dan!"

"I think I know why," everyone turned to Garrett as he rolled up, an object on his lap. He stopped before the group and threw the object in front of him, it clanking on the ground. It was the left wing of Dan's flight-based Proton Pack, "Looks like the maniac blew his pack up. If I remember physics class right, when a nuclear bomb goes off, an electromagnetic pulse results and messes up electronics."

Kylie went back to her meter and checked a different energy band, "He's not wrong; strong magnetic distortions are all over the place, including the Chevy."

"If that was the case, the meters would have totally fried," Roland stated confused, "How are they still working?"

"Hey!" They all looked to Eduardo who was still kneeling beside Dan, "Are ya gonna help Dan, or stand there jawin'?" That shook everyone out of the debate. Immediately after, Roland grabbed Dan's unconscious body by the shoulders with Eduardo taking his feet. Kylie stood and talked to the EMTs, "We have all the equipment we need at our headquarters. He'll be taken care of."

As she walked back to the Ecto-1, she watched as Roland and Eduardo loaded Dan into the back seat. It was odd. Why didn't he have a signal? He was still breathing, but there was no lifeforce behind it.

Once inside the car, Garrett lamented about being next to Dan's unconscious body, "Good God, does this man _bathe_ in Aqua Velva?"

"Garrett," Roland said irritated as he started the vehicle, "stop complaining and keep an eye on him. Egon wants us to update him on what's going on."

Eduardo joined Roland and Kylie in the front seat, his demeanor very hostile, "If Garrett had it his way, Dan'd be dead right now!"

Both Roland and Kylie looked to the Latino highly offended. Garrett's eyes shot right at the man wide as his mouth hung open, the accusation flooring him. Roland yelling out, "_Eduardo!_"

"No!" He fired back, "I'm not shutting up!" He started pointing at Garrett and looked him dead in the eye, "The way this chump's been talkin' smack about him over the last two years tells me he _wishes_ Dan was dead!" Garrett couldn't pick his jaw up. It was a harsh realization to his attitude. It may be possible Garrett had been too forward with his criticisms of the man to the point it bordered on heartlessness or malice.

As the wheelchair-bound man sat silent in Eduardo's accusation, Roland tried to deescalate the argument, "Alright," He drew a deep breath trying to calm himself down as well, "we're all tense, but we have to keep a level head. Our main priority is Dan's health. We're also gonna have to explain to his girlfriend what happened."

"Oh God," Kylie responded, "I forgot about her!"

"On top of that, I have to go over these meters. That pillar of light and now Dan not having a PKE signature? I don't like it." Kylie looked to Roland, then back to Eduardo. She was rather conflicted on how to feel about everything; she was mad Dan had a girlfriend and he never said anything; she was mad that Dan did something so stupid like fight a Draugr by himself; she was angry she couldn't use her meter and find an answer to something; it was beyond confusing.

It wasn't confusing anymore. As Kylie watched Dariena and Mina ride off toward a second Draugr in the neighborhood, the pieces began to fall into place. Dan was one of them. The fact he was was not the only reason to be shocked. Her mentor and idol Dr. Egon Spengler had done something to shake her belief in him as well.

Still, there was something that bothered her. There was the woman running away from the area as Eduardo described. Someone else helped Dan during that fight. Those two women last night… "Raye and Amy?" The others had just come from Japan two days ago, but on the day Dan collapsed…

"...No way."

She began running after the motorcycle, ignoring the downed monster behind her. The occultist of the team just independently verified something she never in her right mind could have comprehended. None of her books prepared her for this; none of her Ghostbusting experience made her ready; even her own peers kept things from her.

Still, if a person was in danger - even people she's unsure of - she had to attempt to protect them. Eduardo was in danger, as was Serena. How they knew that… she saw it the night before. Mina knew of things Eduardo would know. If the meters show the same with Eduardo as it did with Darien, Mina, and Dan…


	26. Kickstarted Heart

Chapter 26: Kickstarted Heart

The Draugr readied it's sword, grunting hard as it flung the weapon high over it's head. Sailor Moon saw this and instantly screamed in terror. A loud swish cut through the air as the sword flew downward. Sailor Moon jumped away as the sword crashed into the asphalt of the street.

Eduardo watched as the mysterious woman began running away from the weapon. An extreme sense of panic started to rise within him as the Draugr pulled the heavy bladed weapon from the ground. Sailor Moon scrambled over damaged cars as she attempted to avoid another strike, lamenting the sudden and inexplicable decision to take on such a strange and dangerous creature, "I'm not ready for this! Stinky nasty zombies? Giant swords? Oof!" She slipped and slammed face first into a car hood as she attempted to hop to another car.

Eduardo witnessed the sailor suited woman collapse on a car attempting to get away. The Draugr now completely ignored him and began pursuit on her. The dim-witted creature dragged it's sword from behind like a lumbering lummox, slowly moving it's way across the road. The Ghostbuster grabbed the edge of the trunk lid of the vehicle he was trapped under and started pulling hard.

Sailor Moon shook off the cobwebs of her fall, whining as she pushed herself up, "Oooo, _that hurt_!" She rubbed her face where she landed before hearing the sound of metal on stone. She turned over and saw the Draugr ready to drop the sword on her again. She screamed and threw up her arms as the weapon almost struck…

From the side, Eduardo dove over the car hood she was on and tackled her to the ground, again moving her away from the imminent danger presented by the monster. They both crashed into the ground as the large Norse weapon cleaved the vehicle before it in half. Sailor Moon and Eduardo rolled over and quickly rose to their feet to run, Eduardo hobbling a bit. They ran toward the semi-trailer that the beast threw earlier and went to hide behind it.

"Ow! Ow! Damnit!" Eduardo started hopping on one foot as he ran through debris from the destroyed building. Sailor Moon heard this and stopped to see him missing one of his boots. That wasn't all. His exposed sock was ripped and bloody in spots. She gasped, "Oh God! Are you okay?"

"I had to pull my foot out of that crushed window," he took off his jacket and started pulling the liner out of it, soon after leaning onto the trailer, "I must of cut my foot on the metal." He ripped the nylon liner out of the jacket and began ripping the fabric into strips. Sailor Moon approached him, "Here, let me help," she took the strips from him and began wrapping his cut foot.

As his foot was being wrapped, Eduardo grunted, "Wrap it tight; stop the bleeding."

Sailor Moon was starting to feel unnerved. Because of the situation, she felt alone when the Draugr started attacking her, not thinking much of Eduardo's capability of being a credible Ghostbuster. The sudden grasp and throw Eduardo performed on her getting her away from the car not even attempting to save himself shocked her. Even now after she tried to save him proved too disastrous, and he ended up saving her instead. From what she had heard about him from the other Ghostbusters thus far, he wasn't the bravest. While talking with him earlier, it's not because he was a coward; he was afraid of failure.

Nothing became more evident that he was working against his own grain when he dove over the car after ripping up his own foot. Grunting more as she knelt down and began tightly wrapping the jacket liner he asked, "You gonna be okay?" She stopped and looked to him. He was sweating from the agony, but he tried to remain calm. She felt a bad guilt start to raise in her heart as she remembered last night and this afternoon. She insulted him even though he was extending an olive branch. After he saved her twice in the matter of three minutes, all while hurting himself no less, she looked into his brown eyes and saw he was worried. The fact she transformed in front of him didn't seem to be a concern.

She looked back down to his foot and continued wrapping, "I'll be okay." "Man," he slammed his fist into the trailer, "first Dan gets tagged, now I get hurt! I am such a _screw-up!_" He threw his head back into the side of the trailer like his fist before. She looked up again and spoke up, "Come on, don't say that! You saved me twice!"

"Only because Dan wanted me to look after you," he panted. He wiped his forehead as he hung his head and closed his eyes, "Almost no one believes in me. I'm not gonna let Dan down and I'm not gonna let you or the other Scouts get hurt again, I swear to God!"

Sailor Moon was just finishing tying off the makeshift bandages when he said that, her eyes wide, "...What?"

The sound of crunching and creaking metal erupted as the semi-trailer started lifting off the ground exposing them to the Draugr. The beast lifted the busted trailer over its head and threw it to the side, grunting loudly as it again lost it's patience with the object. Sailor Moon jumped to her feet and Eduardo spun around as the trailer moved. The Draugr picked up it's sword from the ground as Eduardo stood in front of Sailor Moon and guarded her almost without thinking.

Sailor Moon was taken aback by his position, "E-Eduardo? What are you doing? Get out of here!" "I can't," he was shaking badly as he watched the beast lift his sword, "Not like last time; not again!" "What do you mean last time?" The confusion had to be set aside as the two of them watched the Draugr raise the weapon above its head ready to strike again…

**"VENUS... LOVE CHAIN... ENCIRCLE!" **A golden yellow chain made of heart-shaped links wrapped around the Draugr's blade stopping it mid-swing. The monster reached back and attempted to drop the blade again when it finally noticed the chain around the blade. It looked back and found a woman dressed in a bodysuit the same as Sailor Moon, but trimmed in orange and blue. She was holding onto the chain while also wrapping said chain around a light post.

Eduardo looked and saw her as well. It was almost like a horrible awakening as he looked to the woman and recognized what he saw, "Sailor Venus…"

_SWISH! _**CLANG!** The beast felt something hit it in its helmet. It turned to another direction to find the object that hit it on the ground. It was a single rose. Looking toward the source the creature found a man standing atop a MTA bus dressed in an extremely flashy tuxedo, his face obscured by a top hat and a white masquerade mask. Sailor Moon looked up and saw him there, "Tuxedo Mask!"

Eduardo cocked an eyebrow, "Hey, what's with the Andrew Lloyd Webber character?"

The Draugr grabbed the mystic chain around it's weapon's blade and pulled it hard, groaning in frustration. Sailor Venus attempted to hang onto it, but the sheer strength of the beast caused her to be pulled off her feet. The chain that was wrapped around the light caused a slingshot effect whereas the end of the chain looped around the post, Sailor Venus instead kept flying past the light.

She lost grip of the chain and sailed off into the front windshield of a small pickup truck that was nearby. She slammed into the window breaking it, then with her remaining momentum slid off the front of the truck and into its bed.

Eduardo watched as it all happened so fast. His chest tightened as the event played out before him. He couldn't help but scream, "Mina!" and start rushing toward her, ignoring the pain in his damaged foot. The creature raised its sword again, free of the energy chain that restricted it and attempted to strike again at the Ghostbuster rushing to aid…

_SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!_ Three roses acting like thrown darts embedded themselves into the monster's arm. It hollered and dropped the weapon as Tuxedo Mask called out to Sailor Moon, "Get away from that monster! Our powers are ineffective against them!"

Sailor Moon stood stiff the whole time. She looked back and forth between the Draugr, where Eduardo ran, and where Tuxedo Mask stood. She was conflicted on what to do, "What about Sailor Venus?"

"Eduardo will take care of her; it's what he is to do."

"But…" she looked to where Eduardo ran and where Tuxedo Mask stood, "But he's injured!" She started rushing toward where Sailor Venus laid with Tuxedo Mask calling out after her. The calling he did turned the now very angry Draugr's attention toward him. The masked man realized what was about to befall him, "So, you won't back down?" The beast ripped the roses out of its shoulder and growled. He nodded, "Noted." He raised his cane and prepared to engage.

Eduardo hobbled himself to the back of the pickup to find Sailor Venus unconscious. She was on top of a small stack of pallets that looked to have collapsed under her weight. He stood frozen as she laid unconscious on the wood, unmoving. He slowly approached, afraid to breathe. Sailor Moon stopped short of running beside him seeing the reaction to her being hurt on his face. It was absolutely off-putting; the look on his face logically made no sense seeing the little contact the two of them had. She put her gloved hand to her chin in unsettling concern, "Eduardo?" Eduardo walked to the side of the truck's bed and very gently grabbed Sailor Venus's hand.

Kylie had been running through the street for a block. She doubled over and started taking a breather; the small support Proton Pack, the Ghost Trap, and the trap rig she wore wearing her down. She panted as she wiped the sweat from her brow, some of her facial foundation coming off on her work glove, "I have to talk to Roland about making a lighter rig; this thing is _killing_ me!"

_SCREECH!_ The sky began to darken; a very dense shadow covering over the Manhattan street. Kylie immediately looked skyward and saw a huge horde of Man-Bat creatures overhead. The amount of creatures was massive. It almost looked to have trumped the amount of beasts that attacked the firehouse the night before. The occultist of the team's hair began to stand on the back of her neck in the worst way. She drew her Proton Pistol and activated it again. She looked back toward the street and saw something before her. She saw another Draugr fighting a man in a tuxedo who was hopping from vehicle to vehicle distracting the monster, "Darien…"

She then looked toward a pickup truck and saw a blonde-haired woman lying motionless in it's bed, "Mina…"

Beside the truck, she saw another woman with very distinctive buns on her head with long strands of hair trailing down, "Serena…"

Then she saw Eduardo holding the unconscious woman's hand in his, "Oh my God…"

Eduardo held onto her hand as his breathing became increasingly erratic. He began feeling a sense of anger he had never felt before began to manifest. He leaned in and put the woman's hand to his head, him closing his eyes as an intense feeling of loss started to overtake him.

Sailor Moon became increasingly concerned to the point she was beginning to be frightened, "_Eduardo_?"

**BOOM!BOOM!BOOM! **One by one, the Negaverse-originating creatures dropped from the sky and surrounded the pickup truck. Sailor Moon jumped as the creatures dropped and surrounded them, closing in as they did. They were too close for her to perform an attack meaningful enough…

That was when something happened.

Sailor Moon was looking toward the beasts backing toward Eduardo as she noticed something beginning to shine brightly behind her. Bright golden-yellow in color, she turned to Eduardo and saw the light starting to emanate from him. He lifted his head from Sailor Venus's hand. He placed her hand gently down onto the broken wood she rested upon and turned around as he balled his now empty hands into fists.

On his chest; The symbol of Venus.

In his eyes; Tears.

Behind those tears; Sheer…

_Fucking…_

**Rage.**

A bright wall of energy erupted from the ground around Eduardo's feet and enveloped him in light. Sailor Moon yelped in fear as the man beside her disappeared behind the light.

Several feet away, Kylie witnessed Eduardo vanish in the wall erected around him. Her jaw dropped as she watched this happen right in front of her eyes.

Both the Draugr and Tuxedo Mask stopped their fight as the very bright flash of light illuminated the neighborhood so bright, even NASA could see it from the Hubble Space Telescope… bouncing off the surface of Europa. Tuxedo Mask was especially surprised to see the spectacle before him, "...I knew it."

While the wall was still surrounding, a figure burst through the light wall and immediately started attacking a Man-Bat creature. A thrown chain-mail-covered fist completely exploded the beast's head, it splattering into green mist. The man's feet skidded to a halt hunched over after the assault.

The figure stood; he wore a light-brown southern-style duster trimmed in a navy blue. He wore a black chest plate under the duster with matching black armor plating on his legs complete with southern-style boots. He had a bandolier-style sword sheath that was worn on the outside of the duster.

Venus Knight has somehow come into being without a transformation aid.

He stood with his head down as he spoke, "You… are _not_… going to _do_… **this**… _**again!**_" He raised his head. Sailor Moon recoiled in horror at his eyes. Kylie's own eyes widened as she saw his. Tuxedo Mask felt a sense of tension as he saw his eyes, as well. His eyes…

Venus Knight's eyes were glowing.

A line of Man-Bats dropped in front of Sailor Moon and Venus Knight. Sailor Moon turned to them as they landed, "Oh, no!" Venus Knight walked forward without any fear and put his hands at the wrists together like Ryu from Street Fighter. He screamed in primal rage as he threw both his conjoined hands forward; an energy beam nearly 4 feet in diameter launched from his hands and _vaporized_ the creatures in its path.

There are different kinds of anger. It can represent a form of disagreement; sadness; insanity; hatred; it can even manifest as a form of love, due to its unstable nature much like anger itself. This anger was a special kind. It was decades, centuries… a whole millennium old. It was _the_ most potent form of anger known to humankind through its entire history. It could only manifest when all forms listed are combined into one emotion-filled package…

Revenge.


End file.
